Light  on  Racial  Issues 


By 
SUTTON  E.  GRIGGS 


— Issued  By — 

The  National  Public  Welfare  League 

569  E.  Georgia  Ave.       Memphis,  Tenn. 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


Light  on  Racial  Issues 


By 
SUTTON  E.  GRIGGS 


— Issued  By — 

The  National  Public  Welfare  League 

569  E.  Georgia  Ave.      Memphis,  Tenn. 


OOPYKIGHTED  BY 

SIJTTON  E.  GEIGGS 

Memphis,  Tenn. 

1921. 


PREFACE 

In  a  very  important  sense,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an 
accident.  A  man  falls  from  a  scaffold  and  dies.  The  inci- 
dent is  reported  as  an  accident.  Neither  the  fall  nor  the  death 
was  an  accident.  Any  other  man  of  similiar  proportions  oc- 
cupying the  same  position  on  the  scaffold  and  acting  in  the 
same  way,  would  fall  in  the  same  way,  and  the  same  degree 
of  hurt  would  bring  about  his  death.  The  races  of  men  that 
have  gone  forward,  in  some  way  found  the  laws  of  human  pro- 
gress. Those  that  have  lagged,  in  some  way  and  for  some 
cause  missed  the  road. 

Weakness,  whether  in  the  body  of  man  or  in  the  family 
of  races,  invites  aggression.  The  germs  of  disease  settle  in 
the  weak  spots  of  the  body,  and  the  anti-social  forces  among 
men  pick  out  the  weak  sections  among  men  to  prey  upon.  It 
is  about  as  difficult  to  keep  anti-social  forces  from  preying 
upon  the  weaker  elements  as  it  is  to  keep  tubercular  germs 
from  establishing  colonies  in  the  weak  spots  of  the  lungs.  The 
thoughts  found  in  "  Light  On  Racial  Issues "  are  sent  out  in 
the  earnest  hope  that  they  make  plain  the  paths  that  all  races 
of  men  must  tread  if  they  are  to  attain  unto  their  highest  pos- 
sibilities and  thus  rise  above  the  plane  of  the  weakened  con- 
dition that  invites  aggression. 

If  the  teachings  herein  presented  are  in  keeping  with 
the  laws  of  na  ture  and  nature 's  G-od,  they  cannot  be  ignored. 
For  "God  is  no  respecter  of  persons " — or  races. 

Yours  sincerely, 

SUTTON  E.  GRIGGS. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

MEASUREMENT  OF  RACES 5-20 

THE  RACE  QUESTION  UNDER  CONDITIONS 

THAT  DIFFER 21-24 

INTERVENTIONISTS  AND  CO-OPERATORS 25-28 

THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO  AND  CHANGED 

CONDITIONS 29-42 

TWO  POLITICAL  METHODS  CONTRASTED 43-46 

THE  CHRISTIAN  METHOD  OF  DISCUSSING 

RACIAL  ISSUES 47-49 

LIGHT  FROM  BELOW 50-51 

REAL  MEMBERSHIP  IN  A  DEMOCRACY 52-53 

WHERE  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CO-OPERATION 

IS  WEAK 54-55 

THE  TEN  REQUIREMENTS  OF  RACIAL  SUCCESS—        56 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  NATION  BUILDING—  .  57-62 


Measurement  of  Races. 


[AN  ADDRESS] 


There  are  some  things  in  our  universe  that  remain  un- 
changed by  the  flow  of  time  and  the  coming  of  new  conditions. 
Men  are  born  and  die,  they  sleep  and  dream  and  wake  and  di- 
gest their  food  now  as  always.  We  have  no  need  to  be  on 
the  alert  for  any  changes  in  these  fundamental  processes 
which  are  ever  the  same  among  all  men  in  all  ages.  But  not 
so  with  what  the  world  thinks.  Thought  is  not  one  of  the  un- 
changeable things  of  the  universe. 

Opinions  as  to  the  proper  relations  that  should  exist  be- 
tween different  races  have  varied  from  age  to  age.  Conflict- 
ing views  held  by  two  certain  religious  leaders  in  different 
ages  of  the  world's  history  serve  to  show  how  the  thought  of 
the  world  on  the  questions  of  race  undergoes  changes.  In 
1451  B.  C.,  Moses,  up  to  that  time  the  world's  greatest  relig- 
ious leader,  expressed  himself  on  a  race  question  affecting 
his  people  in  these  words:  "Thou  shalt  blot  out  the  remem- 
brance of  Amalek  from  under  heaven."  These  were  not  angry 
words  spoken  in  a  fit  of  passion.  This  policy  was  carried 
out  to  the  letter,  the  prophet  Samuel  fulfilling  the  utmost  re- 
quirement when  he  personally  hacked  Agag  to  death  with  a 
sword.  In  the  year  1919,  in  the  city  of  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
at  a  conference  called  by  Christian  white  men  in  an  effort  to 
patch  up  certain  differences  existing  wholly  within  the  ranks 
of  colored  men,  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell,  white,  said:  "I  ask  noth- 
ing for  myself  nor  for  my  children  after  me  that  I  would  deny 
to  members  of  the  Negro  race."  Dr.  Gambrell  is  the  relig- 
ious leader  of  the  largest  denomination  of  white  Christians 
in  a  section  holding  the  largest  number  of  people  of  two  dis- 
tinct races  living  in  immediate  touch  with  each  other  to  be 
found  anywhere  in  the  world.  His  declaration  is  being  fol- 
lowed by  a  movement  by  the  white  Christian  forces  back  of 
him  to  build  a  five  hundred  thousand  dollar  seminary  for  the 
neighboring  race.  The  difference  in  time  between  these  two 
utterances  is  3,370  years ;  the  difference  in  spirit  is  infinite. 
We  see  how  far  the  world  has  moved  in  thirty  centuries. 

5 


Let  it  be  understood  in  passing  that  we  catch  the  true 
meaning  of  the  utterance  of  Dr.  Gambrell.  We  know  that  he 
wants  the  perpetuity  of  the  white  race  as  a  white  race,  and 
would  aid  Negroes  in  the  furtherance  of  a  like  ambition  for 
themselves.  He  would  like  to  have  all  the  legitimate  human 
needs  of  his  people  satisfied,  and  he  would  have  the  same  for 
the  Negroes.  With  these  two  posts  marking  the  goal  line  he 
would  press  forward.  This  digression  must  be  pardoned  as 
the  ghost  of  social  intermingling  is  sought  in  almost  all 
that  men  say  and  do  concerning  race  questions,  and  it  is  some- 
times profitable  to  proclaim  his  absence. 

The  question  may  be  asked  as  to  what  can  be  the  practi- 
cal value  of  a  discussion  of  what  the  world-thought  is  on  race 
questions.  In  answer,  we  say,  no  man,  however  high  or  low, 
can  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  world  opinion.  Its  reach  is 
great  and  its  grasp  is  powerful.  It  reached  down  and  grasp- 
ed the  slave,  toiling  in  the  cotton  fields  of  the  South  and  lift- 
ed him  up  to  citizenship  in  the  world's  greatest  republic.  This 
year  it  reached  up  and  pulled  from  his  throne  and  cast  into 
exile  the  most  powerfully  supported  monarch  that  ever  ruled 
a  nation.  There  is  not  one  of  us  who  is  not  in  one  way  or  an- 
other affected  by  world-thought.  This  is  true  whether  we  un- 
derstand it  or  not.  The  blind  man  who  has  never  seen  the 
sun,  nevertheless,  is  kept  warm  by  it  and  is  fed  by  what  is 
produced  by  the  aid  of  its  rays.  Realizing  its  importance  we 
enter  upon  the  discussion  of  our  subject,  "The  Present  Day 
Status  Of  World-Thought  On  Race  Questions. " 

Jesus,  the  Christ,  brought  to  a  world  operating  along 
lines  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  the  doctrine  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  of  love  for  the  other  fellow — altruism.  The 
rush  of  His  blood  from  a  broken  heart  through  a  pierced  side, 
down  to  mother  earth  planted  in  her  bosom  the  seeds  of  al- 
truism which  have  borne  fruit  that  has  shaped  the  destiny  of 
the  whole  human  family.  It  was  this  altruism  that  begot  the 
potent  doctrine  of  the  native  equality  of  all  men.  This  doc- 
trine found  its  largest  expression  in  the  period  covering  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  greater  portion 
of  the  nineteenth.  In  1792,  which  was  near  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  motion  was  carried  in  the  English  House 
of  Commons  providing  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  the  slave 
traffic.  In  1794  the  French  Convention  decreed  that  the 

6 


rights  of  French  citizens  should  be  granted  to  all  slaves  in 
French  colonies.  In  1834  the  British  abolished  slavery  en- 
tirely within  their  dominions.  In  1848  French  slaves  were 
emancipated.  In  1863  the  Dutch  set  their  slaves  free.  The 
South,  unmoved  by  world-thought,  clung  to  its  slaves,  but 
they  were  violently  torn  from  her  grasp  in  the  Civil  War. 
Under  the  impulse  of  the  doctrine  of  the  native  equality  of 
all  men  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  forbidding  the  denial  of  the  right  to  vote  be- 
cause of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude,  was 
adopted  in  the  year  1869.  In  the  year  1870,  bills  were  passed 
by  Congress  providing  fines  and  imprisonment  for  anyone 
who  even  tried  to  prevent  the  Negro  from  voting  or  to  keep 
his  vote  from  being  counted. 

But  all  of  the  forces  that  could  be  marshalled  have  not 
up  to  the  present  time  been  able  to  move  our  nation  or  the 
world  one  inch  forward  in  a  straight  line  from  this  point. 
The  action  just  mentioned  stands  as  the  last  recorded  nation- 
al act  designed  to  incorporate  the  Negro  race  in  the  govern- 
mental structure  without  reservations.  Further  efforts  were 
made  by  powerful  forces  but  all  have  proved  to  be  abortive. 
In  1875  a  very  comprehensive  bill  intended  to  make  the  Ne- 
groes of  the  South  secure  in  their  rights  passed  the  lower 
House  of  Congress  but  was  defeated  in  the  Senate.  Some 
years  later,  the  Lodge  Election  Bill  having  the  same  purpose, 
passed  the  House  but  was  defeated  in  the  Senate.  The  Re- 
publican party's  platform  upon  which  Hon  W.  H.  Taft  was 
elected  president,  contained  an  unequivocal  declaration  in  fa- 
vor of  enforcing  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  in  letter  and  in 
spirit,  but  no  legislation  in  that  direction  was  attempted  dur- 
ing his  term  of  office.  Today  the  agitation  for  the  enactment 
of  legislation  based  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  native  equality 
of  all  men  is  led  mainly  by  groups  of  Negro  leaders.  Not  an 
outstanding  leader  of  the  white  race  in  any  official  position 
in  any  part  of  the  country  has  announced  an  active  policy  in 
this  direction. 

What  brought  the  movement  to  a  close  ?  Why  is  the  world 
deaf  to  pleas  for  its  renewal  ?  It  was  thought  by  some  that  the 
world- war  for  democracy  would  breathe  new  life  into  the  doc- 
trine of  the  native  equality  of  all  men,  but  it  is  now  seen  that 
it  has  not  done  so.  Why? 

7 


Take  your  feeling  out  of  this  matter.  Do  not  hold  one 
who  is  simply  an  interpreter  responsible  for  what  he  sees.  Be 
willing  to  look  the  cold  facts  of  history  squarely  in  the  face. 

The  world  began  to  feel  the  need  of  the  resources  of  all 
the  world.  For  example,  the  allies  needed  the  oil  fields  of 
Mexico  to  help  them  to  win  the  world  war.  Since  the  world 
feels  the  need  of  the  world's  resources,  if  races  that  are  camp- 
ed over  these  resources  do  not  and  cannot  gather  them  and 
pass  them  out  to  the  world,  and  will  not  let  others  do  so  in 
peace  and  safety,  then  let  those  races  be  taken  in  charge, 
was  the  new  resolve.  This  conception  of  a  world-need  de- 
manded a  justifying  philosophy  before  the  moral  forces 
could  be  mustered  to  put  this  policy  into  operation.  Necessi- 
ty is  not  only  the  mother  of  invention  but  it  is  also  the  cause 
of  investigations  that  lead  to  new  systems  of  thought.  The 
advanced  sections  of  mankind  stood  before  the  zones  that 
they  could  not  enter  and  outnumber  the  natives  and  possess 
as  was  the  case  with  North  America.  If  men  of  the  advanced 
races  could  not  go  in  and  outnumber  the  occupying  people  of 
other  races,  how  were  the  resources  of  these  countries  to  be 
gathered  and  utilized?  There  now  came  a  reopening  of  the 
question  of  equality  among  men.  A  new  standard  of  meas- 
urement was  instituted.  Men  were  studied,  not  as  individ- 
uals, but  as  members  of  society.  They  were  now  to  be  judged, 
not  by  what  they  were  as  individuals,  but  by  what  they  were 
as  teams  and  team-mates. 

An  illustration  taken  from  the  great  American  game, 
baseball,  will  make  clear  the  new  standard  of  measurement. 
Let  us  imagine  the  manager  of  the  Detroit  baseball  team  look- 
ing Mr.  Cobb  of  Georgia  over  with  a  view  to  securing  his  ser- 
vices on  that  team.  Mr.  Cobb's  record  might  show  that  he  was 
the  best  batter  and  the  best  base  runner  in  the  world,  but  the 
manager  would  want  to  know  whether  he  had  the  team- spirit. 
The  time  came  in  the  history  of  that  team  when  its  chancces 
for  success  depended  in  large  measure  upon  Mr.  Cobb's  team- 
spirit.  He  was  in  a  close  contest  for  the  honor  of  being  the 
best  batter  of  the  season.  Before  the  contest  closed  he  an- 
nounced that  he  would  not  win  it.  There  was  opportunity  for 
him  to  make  the  necessary  number  of  safe  hits  to  win  the  hon- 
or, but  in  order  for  teams  to  win  games,  it  is  necessary  for 
batters  to  make  hits  that  they  know  will  cause  them  to  be  put 
out,  but  which  will  advance  other  players  toward  the  making 

8 


of  runs.  Mr.  Cobb  put  aside  his  personal  ambition  to  be 
known  as  the  best  batter  of  the  season  and  held  himself  in 
readiness  to  make  all  needed  sacrifice  hits  for  the  purpose 
of  helping  the  team  to  win  the  games. 

The  advanced  section  of  the  world  today  has  each  of  you 
standing  against  the  wall,  let  us  say,  not  to  be  measured  by 
the  height  of  your  body,  nor  the  beauty  and  carrying  power 
of  your  voice,  nor  the  strength  of  your  intellect,  nor  the  size 
of  your  purse,  nor  your  courage  upon  the  field  of  battle,  but 
by  your  capacity  for  handling  the  civic  duties  of  man. 

Prof.  Shaler  Matthews  says  in  his  "Social  Teachings  of 
Jesus."  Advance  in  civilization  has  not  been  accomplished 
by  simply  producing  individuals  of  high  religious  and  moral 
character." 

Benjamin  Kidd  in  his  book  "Social  Evolution"  states 
the  case  in  these  words:  "It  seems  probable  that  there  must 
arise  a  tendency  to  scrutinize  more  closely  the  existing  dif- 
ference between  ourselves  and  the  colored  races  as  regards 
the  qualities  contributing  to  social  efficiency,  this  tendency 
being  accompanied  by  a  disposition  to  relax  our  hitherto  pre- 
valent opinion  that  the  doctrine  of  equality  requires  us  to 
shut  our  eyes  to  differences  w^here  political  relations  are  con- 
cerned."*** "Neither  in  the  respect  alone  of  color,  nor  of  de- 
scent nor  even  of  the  possession  of  high  intellectual  capacity, 
can  science  give  us  any  warrant  for  speaking  of  one  race  as 
superior  to  another.  The  evolution  which  man  is  undergoing  is 
social  evolution.  There  is,  therefore,  but  one  absolute  test  of 
superiority.  It  is  only  the  race  possessing  in  the  highest  de- 
gree the  qualities  contributing  to  social  efficiency  that  can 
be  recognized  as  having  any  claim  to  superiority." 

In  short  the  world  demands  a  new  chorus  from  the 
throats  of  the  various  races  of  men.  The  cry,  "We  are  men. 
We  think  and  feel  as  you  do,"  no  longer  has  weight.  What 
is  demanded  is  the  shout,  backed  by  evidence,  "We  are  splen- 
did team-mates,  alert  to  the  social  duties  of  man  and  able  to 
execute  them  with  a  high  degree  of  efficiency." 

I  think  I  can  make  plain  this  new  method  of  juding  races 
by  citing  a  case  in  the  insect  world.  The  ants  have  cows  which 
they  milk  and  feed.  There  is  a  green  bug  known  as  the  Ap- 
hid which  the  ant  places  on  such  leaves  as  it  likes  to  eat.  This 

9 


bug  makes  a  sort  of  honey  that  the  ant  likes.  By  stroking 
the  abdomen  of  the  bug  with  its  antennae  the  ant  is  able  to 
cause  the  honey  to  flow.  A  colony  of  ants  sometimes  has  a 
large  number  of  these  green  bugs.  Let  us  suppopse  that  these 
bugs  decide  that  they  are  going  to  ask  for  a  part  in  the  gov- 
erning of  the  ant  colony.  Suppose  they  say,  "We  are  indus- 
trious, we  make  the  honey  upon  which  you  ants  feed  and  we 
demand  our  share  in  the  government  of  this  colony. "  The 
ants  would  say  to  them,  "We  concede  that  you  are  industri- 
ous and  useful,  but  you  lack  the  necessary  social  instincts, 
you  do  not  know  how  to  take  an  interest  in  what  your  fellows 
are  doing  and  our  colony  cannot  exist  without  that  faculty. 
You  know  nothing  about  the  recognition  of  leadership  and 
we  cannot  get  along  without  it.  We  must  have  class  distinc- 
tion in  our  colony.  There  is  a  male,  a  female,  the  worker, 
the  soldier,  and  a  small  ant.  While  each  of  these  performs 
a  distinctive  task,  they  all  recognize  the  value  of  each  other 
and  cooperate  with  each  other.  Are  you  bugs  capable  of  tol- 
erating class  distinction  among  yourselves ' '  1 

In  short  what  the  ants  would  demand  of  the  bugs  is  that 
they  possess  capacities  for  social  duties,  and  what  the  world 
now  demands  of  races  is  that  they  manifest  capacities  for  the 
social  duties  of  man. 

Not  all  groups  of  men  are  put  on  the  same  level  in  world- 
thought.  The  Czecho-Slavs,  Jugo-Slavs  and  Poles  are  class- 
ed by  the  Versailles  Peace  Conference  as  worthy  of  being  ac- 
corded an  opportunity  to  show  what  they  can  do  as  groups 
without  outside  direction.  The  Koreans,  Egyptians,  Armen- 
ians, Africans  and  Filipinos  are  still  held  in  a  state  of  tute- 
lage as  groups. 

In  our  own  country  we  find  that  insistence  upon  unrestric- 
ted privileges  for  Negroes  stops  at  points  where  such  action 
would  result  in  having  the  group-expression  predominating- 
ly shaped  by  members  of  the  Negro  race.  Perhaps  the  most 
outspoken  critic  of  the  South  on  the  race  question  that  the 
North  has  developed  in  recent  years  has  been  the  Chicago 
Tribune.  Even  this  advanced  critic  is  not  contending  that 
Negro  groups  shall  be  given  control  of  white  groups  even 
where  calculations  based  upon  numbers  would  warrant  it. 
It  says  "We  admit  frankly  that  if  political  equality  had 
meant  the  election  of  Negro  mayors,  judges,  and  a  majority 

10 


of  Negroes  in  the  city  council  the  whites  would  have  not  tol- 
erated it.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  whites  of  Chicago 
would  be  any  different  from  the  whites  of  the  South  in  this 
respect.  We  have  been  able  to  extend  the  essentials  of  citi- 
zenship to  the  Negroes  freely  because  the  whites  are  domi- 
nant in  numbers." 

Thus,  we  have  before  us  the  opinion  of  the  world  today 
that  a  race  possessing  social  efficiency  in  a  high  degree  has 
the  moral  right  of  rulership  over  a  race  not  exhibiting  the 
faculty,  provided  always  that  individuals  shall  have  all  their 
natural  rights  as  men,  with  the  understanding  that  these 
rights  are  not  construed  so  as  to  result  in  giving  group-con- 
trol to  those  not  manifesting  a  proper  degree  of  social  effi- 
ciency. 

The  very  practical  question  that  presents  itself  to  the 
Negroes  of  the  world  is  as  to  what  is  to  be  their  method  of 
dealing  with  this  new  world-thought.  There  are  three  cours- 
es of  action  open  for  them  to  attempt  to  pursue.  They  can 
attempt  to  ignore  the  demand  for  the  development  of  social 
efficiency,  and  can  attempt  to  seize  control  wherever  their 
numbers  constitute  the  majority.  But  wars  in  our  day  unsup- 
ported by  world-opinion  have  not  been  successful.  The  South 
fought  a  war  out  of  harmony  with  the  world-opinion  and  lack- 
ed the  support  necessary  to  make  her  struggle  successful. 
The  Filipinos  struggled  with  arms  against  the  demand  that 
they  await  the  coming  of  social  efficiency  before  being  grant- 
ed independence,  but  they  did  not  get  the  needed  outside  sup- 
port. Belgium  fought  in  harmony  with  the  world's  opinion 
of  the  sacredness  of  a  treaty,  and  the  controlling  forces  of 
the  world  helped  her.  So  long  as  the  world  is  not  convinced 
that  a  group  of  Negroes  has  developed  social  efficiency  it 
will  not  be  in  sympathy  with  any  armed  attempt  to  take  over 
duties  that  demand  social  efficiency. 

A  second  course  is  to  attempt  to  convince  the  world  that 
it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  for  it  to  go  back  to  the  unmodified 
doctrine  of  the  native  equality  of  men  and  leave  out  of  con- 
sideration all  questions  of  social  efficiency  when  reaching  de- 
cisions concerning  races.  The  two  last  great  outstanding  ad- 
vocates of  a  return  to  the  former  method  of  deciding  upon  the 

11 


course  to  be  pursued  were  the  late  George  Frisbie  Hoar,  a 
republican,  and  Hon.  William  Jennings  Bryan,  a  democrat. 
The  issue  was  Phillipine  independence.  But  the  American 
people  insisted  upon  considering,  not  only  the  desire  of  the 
Filipinos  for  independence,  but  the  probable  use  to  which 
they  would  put  it  if  it  came  to  them.''  "Have  the  Filipinos 
the  social  traits  needed  for  the  purpose  of  enlightened  gov- 
ernment "  was  asked  and  independence  was  held  back  to  wait 
for  a  favorable  answer. 

There  is  a  third  course.  The  Negro  race  can  decide  to 
qualify  under  the  new  requirements.  We  have  come  forward 
as  individuals.  There  stands  our  Douglas,  our  Washington, 
our  Dunbar,  our  Kelly  Miller,  our  DuBois,  our  Walker,  our 
Trotter,  our  John  Mitchell,  Jr.,  and  our  Morris.  We  can  now 
accept  the  challenge  to  come  forward  in  our  social  capacities. 
We  can  decide  to  try  to  heal  needless  breaches  in  our  life  as 
a  race  which  unduly  tax  our  energies  with  contests  with  each 
other.  We  can  devote  increased  attention  to  reducing  our 
death  rate,  to  caring  for  orphans,  to  providing  avenues  for 
expansion  for  our  young  people,  to  the  teaching  of  the  habit 
of  saving,  to  the  reduction  of  our  percentage  of  criminality, 
to  the  amassing  of  property  and  to  matters  of  education — all 
of  which  are  social  tasks  calling  for  the  qualities  that  make 
for  social  efficiency  in  general. 

Let  us  take  this  our  Convention  as  an  example.  We  gath- 
er in  large  numbers  each  year,  but  are  we  cooperating!  The 
mere  fact  that  we  come  together  does  not  signify  that  we  are 
cooperating.  A  thousand  flies  may  be  together  on  a  plate  of 
molasses  and  yet  will  not  be  cooperating.  Each  one  will  be 
looking  out  for  his  own  welfare  only. 

The  point  is  we  must  learn  to  think  in  the  terms  of  the 
other  man's  job.  Our  president  has  outlined  a  campaign  for 
$5,000,000.  Can  we,  will  we  enter  into  his  idea?  Each  one  of 
us  has  his  own  individual  undertaking.  Have  we  the  capacity 
to  sacrifice  our  own  ambitions  and  to  limit  our  personal  pro- 
grams to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  successful  the  larger  pro- 
grams f 

In  my  opinion  the  foundation  of  all  modern  civilization 
was  laid  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Jordan  when  John  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  committed  suicide.  He  deliberately  slew  himself 
and  made  Jesus  greater  than  himself.  He  turned  men's  minds 

12 


away  from  himself  to  Jesus.  The  spirit  of  blending  influen- 
ces is  what  makes  possible  modern  civilization,  and  men  are 
judged  by  their  capacity  for  this  blending  process.  Let  us 
look  at  the  state  of  things  in  our  life  as  a  race.  Take  note  of 
the  needless  divisions  in  religious,  fraternal  and  civic  move- 
ments. If,  in  our  religious  life  we  are  so  feebly  connected 
that  a  feather  will  knock  us  apart,  that  fact  will  stand  against 
us  in  the  judgment  of  men.  Men  cannot  have  double  natures. 
We  cannot  have  one  character  in  religious  life  and  another 
in  civil  life.  The  essential  character  of  the  soul  of  a  race  will 
manifest  itself  in  whatever  it  takes  part.  If  we  have  such  dis- 
positions that  we  cannot  hang  together  in  religious  activities, 
men  fear  that  if  we  had  charge  of  this  country  with  48  inde- 
pendent states  forming  one  great  nation,  it  would  soon  be- 
come dismembered  and  would  be  48  independent  nations. 

Can  the  Negro  race  hear  the  call  to  rise  to  the  plane  of 
collective  efficiency?  There  are  more  than  300,000  insects  in 
the  world.  Of  the  different  insects,  only  one  family  has  risen 
to  the  point  where  it  has  the  ability  to  operate  governments, 
and  that  family  is  the  Hymenoptera  comprising  such  insects 
as  bees,  ants,  wasps,  and  hornets.  The  fact  that  only  the  one 
family  out  of  more  than  300,000  has  reached  the  stage  of  col- 
lective efficiency  shows  us  how  difficult  is  this  stage  of  evo- 
lution. 

I  speak  to  you  tonight  in  the  name  of  our  brave  boys  who 
went  across  the  seas,  who  withstood  the  liquid  flames  of  the 
Germans,  who  marched  amid  the  hail  of  bursting  bombs,  who 
charged  and  went  over  the  top  amid  appalling  scenes  of  death 
— I  implore  you  leaders  to  see  to  it  that  the  sacrifices  of 
these  boys  were  not  in  vain.  The  only  way  in  which  we  can 
collect  on  their  services  is  through  social  efficiency.  Many  a 
man  has  failed  to  collect  a  debt  because  he  did  not  have  a  good 
collector;  and  many  blessings  that  would  come  to  our  race 
fail  to  come  because  we  have  not  equipped  ourselves  to  col- 
lect. Let  not  our  soldiers  be  disappointed  as  to  the  effects 
of  their  labors  merely  because  we  are  not  in  a  position  to 
collect  as  a  race  for  what  they  have  done. 

Social  efficiency  will  enable  us  to  do  such  magnificoent 
things  that  it  will  add  respect  to  men's  minds  as  a  factor  in 
solving  all  of  our  problems.  Just  think  of  attempting  a  thing 
with  full  respect  lacking  in  the  mind  of  the  persons  to  be  ap- 
proached. When  a  person  has  a  feeling  of  contempt  for  an- 

13 


other,  it  is  very  likely  to  manifest  itself  in  some  manner.  And 
races  that  have  developed  social  efficiency  do  not  have  the 
greatest  respect  for  the  races  that  have  not  developed  it. 

A  few  days  ago  three  men  in  a  certain  city  committed  a 
very  heinous  offense,  it  is  said.  These  men  will  be  tried  ac- 
cording to  law  and  perhaps  will  be  killed,  but  in  a  legal  way. 
If  they  had  been  Negroes  there  would  have  been  danger  of 
lynching  and  the  disposition  to  lynch  Negroes  for  the  same 
offenses  committed  by  whites  is  an  expression  of  the  feeling 
of  contempt.  We  have  simply  got  to  lift  our  race  in  the  es- 
teem of  the  world  and  we  can  only  do  this  by  the  development 
of  social  efficiency. 

The  matter  of  attaining  social  efficiency  is  a  cause  upon 
which  everyone  can  unite,  whether  he  is  an  advocate  of  force 
or  a  believer  in  the  wisdom  of  the  policy  of  trying  to  take  the 
world  back  to  its  ancient  faith. 

To  become  a  race  that  measurably  lives  up  to  its  capa- 
city, that  possesses  social  efficiency,  we  must  give  special  at- 
tention to  certain  matters  of  temperament,  certain  moral  re- 
quirements and  certain  mental  concepts.  As  to  temperament 
there  must  be  a  conquest  of  jealousy,  excessive  emotionalism 
and  brusqueness.  In  matters  of  morals,  there  must  come  a 
control  of  the  appetites,  honesty,  truthfulness,  reliability,  and 
the  spirit  and  the  courage  to  work  reforms.  In  the  matter  of 
mental  concepts  it  must  be  realized  that  strength  lies  in  unity 
rather  than  in  needless,  endless  divisions.  Each  unit  must 
count  itself  one.  Every  man  must  be  ready  to  second  readily 
and  voluntarily  the  worthy  efforts  of  others,  and  when  nec- 
essary, to  take  the  initiative  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  pub- 
lic good.  Give  us  these  qualities  in  sufficient  abundance  and 
the  inevitable  product  is  social  efficency.  Let  us  teach  these 
things  from  the  pulpits,  in  our  schools  and  by  the  family  fire- 
side, and  the  next  generation  will  find  the  Negro  race  meet- 
ing the  world's  new  test. 

Let  us  not  confine  the  acquisition  of  social  efficiency  to 
our  own  country.  The  welfare  of  Liberia  should  be  dear  to 
the  hearts  of  all  of  us.  There  our  social  capacities  are  freely 
on  trial.  The  winds  that  have  forced  other  small  nations  into 
harbors  where  they  have  been  provided  with  alien  masters 
have  not  thus  affected  Liberia  up  to  this  good  hour.  With 
Negroes  at  the  helm,  she  yet  sails  the  troubled  waters  of  na- 
tional existence.  As  this  ship  sails  on  and  on,  seeking  to 

14 


make  the  port  of  a  great  destiny  let  us  help  to  fill  her  sails, 
that  the  light  of  her  glory  may  reach  Negroes  everywhere.  We 
have  it  in  our  power  to  make  Liberia  a  great  nation.  If  we 
would  but  do  what  we  can,  if  we  would  but  make  Liberia's 
cause  our  cause,  we  could  make  of  it  a  nation  as  great  as 
Japan. 

It  is  my  opinion  that  President  Woodrow  Wilson  would 
have  been  glad  to  have  turned  over  to  the  Africans  the  por- 
tion of  Africa  taken  from  the  Germans.  The  world  is  waiting 
for  us  to  develop  social  efficiency.  It  should  be  our  endeavor 
to  give  to  all  of  Africa  the  gospel,  which  is  the  real  parent  of 
all  social  efficiency.  But  care  must  be  taken  to  emphasize 
along  with  other  things  those  principles  in  the  Christian  re- 
ligion that  make  for  social  efficiency. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  one  of  the  world's  greatest  so- 
ciologists that  a  practically  new  Negro  race  is  being  formed 
in  America  and  that  this  new  race  may  be  the  world's  depen- 
dence for  furnishing  the  necessary  social  efficiency  for  the 
proper  development  of  tropical  Africa,  Czecho-Slavs,  who 
were  captured  and  taken  into  the  interior  of  Eussia  as  pris- 
oners, when  set  free,  proceeded  to  organize  a  government 
which  has  since  been  recognized  and  put  in  charge  of  terri- 
tory. We  were  captured  and  brought  here.  Why  can  we  not 
display  such  unify  of  purpose,  such  capacity  for  joint  action 
of  a  sane  character,  such  evidences  of  statesmanship  that 
the  world  will  call  upon  us  to  serve  as  a  mandatory  for  cer- 
tain portions  of  Africa? 

The  future  of  Africa  as  a  self-governing  portion  of  the 
world  is  not  so  dark  if  we  can  but  plant  there  all  virtues  es- 
sential to  social  efficiency.  The  people  of  Australia  and  Can- 
ada, because  they  had  every  essential  of  self-governing  na- 
tions were  welcomed  to  seats  in  the  League  of  Nations.  Not 
a  shot  was  fired  against  the  mother  country  to  obtain  this 
result.  Thrusting  aside  anything  of  a  doubtful  nature  that 
our  judgment  may  have  to  say  on  the  subject,  and  inspired 
by  the  peaceful  recognition  of  these  two  great  nations,  let  us 
listen  to  our  hearts  as  they  proclaim  the  coming  of  the  day 
when  Africa,  at  last  clothed  in  her  right  mind,  sends  her  full 
quota  of  representatives  to  sit  in  the  forthcoming  "Parlia- 
ment of  Man." 

15 


ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  SOUTHERN  SITUATION 

Before  a  race  can  take  its  proper  place  in  the  world  there 
must  be  a  diffusion  of  general  prosperity  among  the  people. 
Not  just  a  few  but  many  should  have  a  sure  economic  founda- 
tion. General  prosperity  of  this  character  has  not  come  to 
any  race  by  the  mere  use  of  the  muscles.  Nature's  aid  is 
needed.  Coal  and  iron,  copper  and  silver,  gold  and  diamonds 
have  aided  the  respective  peoples  where  they  were  found 
if  they  had  the  vision  to  use  them. 

As  Dr.  E.  E.  Branson  of  the  University  of  North  Caro- 
lina has  said:  "A  landless,  homeless  people,  white  or  black, 
may  be  as  they  are  in  this  country  nominally  free,  but  in  real- 
ity they  are  living  on  the  level  of  economic  serfdom.  The 
man  who  has  little  or  nothing,  whatever  his  color,  has  scant 
regard  shown  him  in  the  daily  walks  of  life,  in  business  cir- 
cles, in  courts  and  councils  and  legislative  halls. ' ' 

Nature's  one  offering  to  the  Negro  race  where  it  can  help 
on  a  large  scale  is  the  cotton  fields  of  the  South.  In  times 
past  the  Negroes  have  been  taking  advantage  of  nature 's  of- 
ferings. In  North  Carolina  they  own  one-third  of  all  the 
farms  they  operate.  In  fifteen  counties  of  the  state  they  own 
three-fourths  of  the  farms  they  cultivate.  In  Virginia  there 
are  fifty-eight  counties  in  which  the  Negroes  own  three- 
fourths  of  the  farms  they  occupy.  In  Mississippi  there  are 
large  numbers  of  our  people  who  are  worth  from  ten  to  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  On  one  planta- 
tion after  all  expenses  were  paid,  the  hands  were  handed  for 
their  own  use  free  from  all  incumbrances  over  $600,000  as 
one  season's  pay-roll.  Our  race  needs  such  places  for  its 
economic  development. 

Let  us  cooperate  to  shape  such  public  sentiment  in  these 
sections  where  our  people  have  good  economic  opportunities 
that  life  will  be  safeguarded,  that  a  full  measure  of  educa- 
tion will  be  accorded,  and  that  every  man  will  be  allowed  to 
hold  and  enjoy  unmolested  the  fruits  of  his  toil.  These  peo- 
ple are  where  they  are,  laying  a  needed  economic  foundation 
for  the  larger  purposes  of  the  race.  As  a  people  we  are  go- 
ing to  need  all  that  they  can  earn  and  save  and  hold.  But  we 
must  not  disregard  the  welfare  of  these  toilers  for  the  good  of 
their  race.  America  did  not  forget  her  toilers  across  the  sea, 
and  we  must  not  forget  our  army  wherever  located  gathering 
in  economic  resources. 

16 


We  wish  to  call  attention  of  those  who  may  have  felt 
that  the  leaving  of  our  people  from  the  South  would  solve 
our  American  race  question  to  a  like  conception  in  the  past. 
Abraham  Lincoln,  forseeing  the  perplexing  difficulties  in- 
herent in  any  attempt  to  have  two  distinct  races  live  side  by 
side  on  terms  of  equality,  and  gravely  doubting  whether  it 
would  better  the  condition  of  the  Negroes  to  set  them  free 
and  yet  keep  them  as  underlings,  was  a  persistent  advocate 
of  colonizing  them  in  some  country  suitable  to  the  purpose. 
In  speeches  made  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  messages  to  Congress  as  president, 
he  urged  this  policy.  He  conducted  negotiations  with  foreign 
governments  in  efforts  to  find  a  satisfactory  place  for  this 
proposed  colonization,  and  influenced  Congress  to  make  an  ap- 
propriation for  purposes  of  colonization.  He  is  said  to  have 
held  to  such  views  as  late  as  April  1865,  and  is  reported  to 
have  abandoned  the  plan  only  after  having  been  convinced 
by  Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  who  investigated  the  matter 
for  him,  that  all  the  naval  vessels  and  merchant  marines  in 
good  condition  in  the  possession  of  the  government  at  the  time 
would  not  be  able  to  take  the  Negroes  away  to  the  nearest  for- 
eign country  half  as  fast  as  Negro  children  would  be  born 
in  the  United  States. 

A  little  calculation  on  our  part  today  will  serve  to  show 
to  what  extent  the  obstacle  that  blocked  Abraham  Lincoln's 
plan  stands  in  the  way  of  our  regarding  a  wholesole  exodus 
of  our  people  from  the  South  as  the  only  ideal  solution  of  our 
problems.  An  instant's  reflection  will  serve  to  show  that  we 
need  a  policy  with  additional  angles.  The  emigration  of  for- 
eign labor  during  the  world  war,  the  raising  of  the  Ameri- 
can expeditionary  force,  and  tEe  need  of  labor  for  war  indus- 
tries caused  many  avenues  of  employment  in  the  North  to  be 
opened  to  the  Negroes  that  up  to  that  time  had  been  closed 
to  them.  This  caused  an  exodus  of  Negro  laborers  from  the 
South  which  at  its  height  reached  the  rate,  it  is  estimated,  of 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  a  year.  The  average 
annual  increase  of  the  Negro  population  of  the  South  for  the 
coming  period  of  65  years,  is  estimated  to  be  about  153,846  a 
year.  If  we  subtract  the  natural  annual  increase  of  Negroes 
in  the  South  from  those  leaving,  we  find  that  the  actual  an- 
nual loss  in  Negro  population  is  about  21,154  persons.  If 
there  are  about  ten  millions  of  Negroes  in  the  South,  and  the 

17 


net  loss  is  21,154  a  year,  it  will  require  472  years  to  get  the 
ten  millions  out  of  the  South. 

But  unless  some  unforeseen  happening  intervenes  the  North 
will  not  be  in  a  position  to  absorb  as  many  Negro  laborers  as 
during  the  war  period,  hence,  the  rate  of  leaving  will  probably 
be  much  slower,  thus  requiring  more  than  472  years  to  empty 
the  South  of  its  Negro  population.  If  there  is  any  statesman- 
ship in  the  Negro  race,  any  looking  out  for  the  masses,  then 
there  must  be  thought  as  to  a  policy  to  be  pursued  for  the  Ne- 
groes who  are  to  remain  in  the  South  for  at  least  four  hundred 
and  seventy-two  years.  Not  even  a  noon-day  sun  in  a  cloudless 
sky  is  clearer  than  the  fact  that  the  exodus  is  not  an  adequate 
remedy  for  the  race  question. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  and  now  to  outline  a  full  pol- 
icy for  the  Negroes  to  pursue  with  reference  to  the  South, 
but  to  set  forth  what  must  be  a  cardinal  feature  of  any  policy 
that  has  any  chance  whatever  to  be  more  beneficial  than 
harmful.  In  every  age,  in  every  land,  there  have  been  people 
who  are  just  and  humane.  In  spite  of  mob  violence,  injus- 
tice in  the  courts,  poor  educational  facilities  and  unjust  treat- 
ment— things  that  Negroes  in  some  secctions  of  the  South  en- 
counter, there  are  white  people  in  the  South  who  abhor  these 
things,  who  speak  out  against  them,  who  wish  fairness  and 
justice  meted  out  to  all.  The  friendship  of  this  class  of  white 
people  should  be  openly  acknowledged  and  their  counsel  and 
cooperation  should  be  sought.  We  should  lay  upon  their 
hearts  the  just  grievances  of  the  race,  and  should  take  coun- 
sel of  them  as  to  the  best  methods  of  overcoming  the  hostility 
of  others  of  their  race  who  are  not  so  kindly  disposed. 

In  this  connection  it  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  mention 
powerful  new  forces  that  are  gathering  beneath  the  standard 
floating  over  those  battling  for  justice  for  and  the  progress 
of  our  people.  The  San  Antonio  Daily  Express  has  establish- 
ed a  fund  of  $150,000  from  which  to  offer  rewards  for  the 
capture  and  the  conviction  of  those  who  lynch.  The  Houston 
Post  and  The  Atlanata  Constitution  are  pointing  out  the  need 
of  federal  action  concerning  lynching.  Tennessee  has  a  "Law 
and  Order  League "  which  favors  making  lynching  a  federal 
offense,  and  has  helped  to  put  on  the  statute  book  of  Tennes- 
see the  law  that  the  Governor  said  was  needed  to  suppress 
imobs.  The  Southern  Sociological  Congress  and  the  Missis- 
sippi Welfare  League  are  two  powerful  organizations  of 

18 


Southern  white  people  striving  to  mould  the  sentiment  that 
will  bring  to  an  end  the  reign  of  the  mob.  The  people  of  Bir- 
mingham have  organized  a  Community  Council  composed  of 
both  races  designed  to  insure  good  relations  between  the 
races.  The  Memphis  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  a  strong 
committee  known  as  the  Industrial  Welfare  Committee  which 
has  for  its  object  the  promotion  of  the  welfare  of  the  Negro 
industrial  workers.  In  all  sections  of  the  country,  let  us  meet 
half-way  all  who  are  in  any  way  seeking  to  make  things  bet- 
ter for  our  people. 

There  will  come  in  the  life  of  our  race  two  different  types 
of  workers,  the  agitator  and  arbitrator.  Do  not  let  the 
thought  develop  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  the  arbitrator. 
It  is  the  arbitrator  that  finally  brings  about  a  settlement  of 
things.  He  is  the  one  that  helps  the  people  to  reap  whatever 
of  good  there  was  in  the  work  of  the  agitator.  There  must 
be  some  one  in  whom  both  sides  have  confidence.  Therefore, 
let  the  Negro  race  beware  of  despising  the  service  of  the  arbi- 
trator. 

ADVICE  TO  NEGROES  THAT  HAVE  GONE  NORTH 

We  cannot  bring  this  address  to  a  close  without  offering 
a  few  suggestions  to  those  of  our  race  who  recently  have  gone 
into  sections  where  unrestricted  privileges  have  been  accor- 
ded our  people,  not  perhaps  because  they  were  better  than 
others  of  their  kind  but  because  they  were  fewer  in  number. 
There  is  a  danger  inherent  in  any  situation  where  the  re- 
straints due  to  environing  conditions  are  suddenly  lifted. 
Hear  the  story  of  the  insect  called  the  ' '  child  of  a  day. ' '  The 
May  fly  is  hatched  at  the  bottom  of  a  marsh  or  pond.  For 
two  or  three  years  it  lives  in  its  mean  home,  eating  mud,  de- 
cayed plants  and  small  animals,  never  once  catching  a  view  of 
the  sky.  Finally,  its  days  of  probation  over,  it  comes  to  the 
surface,  casts  aside  its  gills,  develops  wings  and  soars  aloft 
in  the  air.  So  joyful  is  it  in  its  new  life  that  it  fails  to  eat 
and  spends  the  major  portion  of  its  time  in  a  merry  dance. 
It  has  a  great  attraction  for  bright  lights,  to  which  it  flies 
and  is  scorched,  and  dies.  Often  at  Atlantic  City,  not  many 
miles  from  here,  great  loads  of  dead  May  flies  are  carted  a- 
way.  God  forbid  that  Negroes  coming  up  out  of  the  period  of 
slavery,  and  out  of  many  surroundings  in  the  past  of  an  un- 
pleasant character — God  forbid  that  they  shall  play  the  part 

19 


of  human  May  flies  to  be  scorched  to  death  by  the  sinful 
pleasures  of  our  great  Northern  cities.  As  leaders  you  must 
see  that  they  do  not  act  thus.  By  practicing  self-restraint 
yourselves  and  by  wholesome  teachings  you  must  force  sav- 
ing truths  into  their  lives. 

In  the  great,  long  drawnout  battle  before  us  as  a  race 
various  weapons  will  be  needed — the  pen  of  power,  the  ton- 
gue of  fire,  the  painter's  brush,  and  the  poet's  song,  but  the 
greatest  weapon  is  going  to  be  a  good  character  shining  out 
of  the  life  of  every  Negro,  and  that  weapon  is  in  reach  of  ev- 
ery man,  woman  and  child. 

And  now  we  give  you  our  final  word  which  we  hope  you 
will  carry  with  you.  In  all  of  our  thinking,  speaking  and  writ- 
ing, whether  in  public  or  in  private,  let  us  bear  in  mind  that 
race  questions  are  the  most  difficult  questions  that  have  been 
committed  to  the  hands  of  men.  It  was  a  race  question  that 
started  the  great  world  war.  Seventeen  different  race  wars 
were  raging  in  Europe  and  Asia  at  one  time  following  the 
close  of  the  big  war.  The  Turkish  Empire  is  to  be  dismember- 
ed principally  because  of  the  manner  in  which  it  has  handled 
its  race  questions.  In  view  of  the  seriousness  of  the  ques- 
tions of  race  it  behooves  us  all  to  be  calm  in  spirit,  careful  as 
to  utterances,  sober  in  judgment,  slow  in  action,  patient  in 
everything,  knowing  that  with  our  cooperation,  God  can  and 
will  bring  about  everywhere  a  day  of  full  justice  for  all  men. 


20 


The  Race  Question  Under  Condi- 
tions That  Differ. 

A  well  dressed,  well  behaved  colored  man,  walking  along 
one  of  the  crowded  streets  of  London  heard  a  disparaging  re- 
mark concerning  himself  made  by  a  white  man.  He  stopped 
to  challenge  the  remark.  White  people  who  had  heard  the 
uncomplimentary  reference  encouraged  the  colored  man  in 
his  resentment.  A  ring  was  drawn  on  the  sidewalk  and  the 
two  men,  surrounded  by  a  crowd,  were  allowed  to  fight  it  out 
without  interference  by  the  spectators,  all  white  persons.  The 
colored  man  got  the  better  of  the  conflict,  and  the  crowd  dis- 
persed evidently  satisfied  with  the  outcome,  especially  the 
portion  that  heard  the  statement  that  brought  on  the  battle. 

Mr.  Kidd,  who  was  a  witness  of  this  incident,  contrasted 
it  with  another  experience  which  he  had  in  South  Africa, 
where  he  was  criticized  by  a  white  official  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment, because,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  a 
native  chief,  he  shook  hands  with  the  chief  who  was 
of  middle  age,  clean  and  well  behaved.  The  fear  of 
the  official  was  that  that  hand-shake  might  put  the  natives 
to  dreaming  of  equality,  of  testing  their  strength  with  their 
rulers,  which  would  have  cost  much  effort  and  great  slaughter 
in  view  of  the  overwhelming  numerical  superiority  of  the  na- 
tives. 

The  contrast  between  the  action  of  the  London  crowd  of 
whites  that  calmly  witnessed  a  fight  between  a  colored  and 
a  white  man,  with  sympathy  on  the  side  of  the  aggrieved  col- 
ored man,  and  the  rebuke  of  the  white  official  in  South  Africa 
because  he  shook  a  colored  man 's  hand  made  a  profound  im- 
pression upon  Mr.  Kidd.  But  he  did  not  ascribe  the  differ- 
ence in  the  two  attitudes  assumed,  to  a  difference  in  the  peo- 
ple involved,  but  to  the  difference  in  their  surrounding  cir- 
cumstances. The  population  of  London  was  overwhelmingly 
white,  so,  there  was  nothing  to  be  feared  from  an  assumption 
of  equality  on  the  part  of  the  colored  man ;  whereas,  the  col- 
ored people  of  South  Africa  were  prepared  from  the  view- 
point of  numbers  to  give  great  trouble  to  the  few  white  peo- 
ple in  their  midst. 

In  dealing  with  the  race  question  in  the  United  States  the 
fact  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  where  the  colored  people  are 
few  in  number  an  attitude  will  be  assumed  that  will  not  be 

21 


taken  where  they  are  more  numerous.  If  this  fact  is  not  con- 
sidered, the  colored  people  may  be  inclined  to  rush  to  the  white 
people  who  seem  to  be  different,  only  to  find  that  the  increase 
of  numbers  has  brought  about  a  change  of  sentiment. 

Moreover,  unless  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  different  cir- 
cumstances create  different  states  of  mind,  colored  people 
living  under  one  set  of  conditions  may  not  have  the  proper 
feeling  toward  the  methods  of  their  fellows  who  labor  under 
totally  different  circumstances,  whereas  the  methods,  despis- 
ed at  a  distance  may  be  the  only  methods  that  could  be  em- 
ployed with  any  hope  of  success  by  any  human  beings  how- 
ever resourceful. 

The  late  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  labored  in  a  section 
where  the  superior  numbers  of  the  colored  people  would  have 
given  them  control  of  the  agencies  of  government  if  there  had 
been  no  restrictions  on  the  voting  privilege.  The  removal  of 
those  restrictions  in  advance  of  a  change  of  sentiment  on  the 
part  of  the  neighboring  white  people  would  have  brought  on 
a  physical  clash  with  them.  Unless  Dr.  Washington  was  pre- 
pared for  this  clash  or  could  rely  on  national  aid  he  was  not 
in  a  position  to  precipitate  it.  He  proceeded  to  win  the  favor 
of  the  white  people  by  whom  he  was  surrounded  and  to  seek 
to  develop  a  class  of  Negroes  that  would  meet  the  approval 
of  people  everywhere,  in  the  hope  that  they  might  gain  by 
that  process  that  which  the  nation  was  in  no  mood  to  give  as 
a  result  of  agitation  and  at  the  cost  of  a  policy  of  armed  in- 
tervention. 

The  agitation  which  was  practically  ignored  where  the 
colored  people  were  few  in  number,  would  have  been  taken 
far  more  seriously  if  indulged  in  by  Dr.  Washington  in  the 
midst  of  an  overwhelming  Negro  population.  Yet  there  were 
persons  who  blamed  him  for  not  talking  and  acting  exactly 
after  the  manner  of  those  whose  very  inability  to  do  any  harm, 
whose  utter  weakness  in  'their  surroundings,  caused  their  say- 
ings to  be  regarded  as  harmless  outpourings  that  would  do 
less  harm  out  of  their  systems  than  in.  • 

Some  species  of  ants  have  reached  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment where  they  realize  that  they  need  members  of  their  so- 
ciety especially  adapted  to  various  purposes.  Soldiers,  work- 
ers and  small  ants,  totally  distinct  classes,  each  with  its  spec- 
ial duties,  are  found  in  the  same  colony,  offspring  of  the 
same  parents.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  soldier  to  go  along  with 

22 


the  workers  allowing  them  to  carry  all  loads,  while  he  loafs 
under  all  ordinary  circumstances.  But  if  an  enemy  appear 
or  an  unusual  difficulty  is  encountered,  the  soldier  gets  into 
action.  When  the  enemy  has  been  conquered  or  the  difficul- 
ty removed,  the  soldier  returns  to  his  life  of  ease,  with  the 
consent  of  the  other  ants  who  realize  along  with  him  that  his 
mission  is  a  special  one.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  " small  ant"  to 
enter  places  in  search  of  food,  that  are  too  small  for  the 
il  workers  "  to  enter. 

The  admonition  of  Solomon  to  study  the  ways  of  the  ant 
may  well  be  heeded  by  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States.  Let 
them  not  suffer  the  delusion  that  one  Negro  who  is  not  doing 
exactly  what  some  others  are  doing,  who  deliberately  refrains 
from  doing  some  good  things  that  others  are  doing,  is  neces- 
sarily untrue  to  the  highest  interests  of  his  people.  It  is 
sometimes  the  case  that  the  very  highest  service  a  man  can 
render  in  the  interest  of  the  final  triumph  of  that  which  is 
right,  is  to  conserve  his  influence  for  use  at  a  time  when  no 
one  on  earth  could  be  of  service  except  some  one  who  had 
thus  conserved  his  influence. 

The  three  fundamental  principles  of  our  American  civi- 
lization are  said  to  be  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity. 

The  thirteenth  amendment  to  the  constitution  brought 
liberty  to  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States. 

The  fifteenth  amendment  brought  equality. 

There  is  no  denial  of  the  fact  that  in  most  of  the  states  of 
the  United  States,  the  Negroes  have  a  full  measure  of  liberty 
and  equality. 

But  privileges  and  honors  in  a  democracy  do  not  flow 
out  of  liberty  and  equality.  They  spring  from  the  spirit  of 
fraternity. 

Liberty  .and  equality  can  be  bestowed  upon  an  individual 
or  a  race  by  an  outside  force,  but  fraternity,  good-will — can- 
not be  besitowed  from  without.  It  must  be  won  by  the  indiv- 
idual or  race  securing  it. 

The  problem  before  the  vast  majority  of  the  Negroes  of 
this  country  is  the  problem  of  fraternity,  the  problem  of  se- 
curing the  good-will  of  their  fellow  citizens. 

The  workers  for  liberty  and  equality  must  bear  in  mind 
then  the  workers  for  fraternity  are  engaged  in  a  task  of  equal 
importance.  Here  is  need  for  the  wisdom  of  the  ants,  so  that 
those  who  are  concerning  themselves  about  questions  of  lib- 

23 


erty  and  equality  may  realize  that  the  workers  for  good  will, 
though  in  a  different  line  and  using  different  methods,  are 
contributing  that  to  the  situation,  the  absence  of  which  will 
cause  the  liberty  and  equality  to  be  no  more  than  a  hollow 
mockery. 

It  was  the  Chrisit  who  rebuked  His  jealous  and  unthink- 
ing disciples  for  their  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  services  of 
some  who  were  doing  good  that  was  apperent  to  all,  merely 
because  they  did  not  chance  to  belong  to  their  immediate  band 
and  were  not  marching  in  their  ranks. 

Negroes  must  work  quietly,  nobly,  persistently  in  many 
distinct  fields  and  in  many  different  ways,  in  ways  that  may 
have  the  superficial  appearance  of  being  antagonistic,  if  they 
are  to  make  the  progress  and  to  hold  the  friends  needed  in  the 
solution  of  the  stupendous  problems  that  are  before  them. 


•24 


Interventionists  and  Cooperators. 

There  has  developed  among  the  Negroes  of  the  United 
States  a  division  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  way  in  which  to 
work  to  remedy  whatever  conditions  are  wrong  with  reference 
to  their  race  in  the  South.  As  all  other  civilized  races  have 
developed  different  schools  of  thought,  it  ought  not  to  be  sur- 
prising to  find  the  Negroes  thinking  in  different  channels  as 
their  intelligence  increases.  The  first  great  test  that  comes 
to  a  race  under  a  condition  of  divided  thought  is  as  to  wheth- 
er the  respective  groups  are  able  to  tolerate  and  respect  each 
other,  and  are  able  to  continue  to  work  together  on  such  things 
as  they  are  agreed  upon  in  spite  of  their  disagreement  on 
other  matters. 

With  reference  to  the  question  as  to  the  relations  between 
the  races  in  the  South,  the  Negroes  may  be  classified  as  in- 
terventionists and  co-operators.  The  interventionists  hold 
that  the  best  way  to  adjust  matters  in  the  South  is  for  the 
national  government  to  intervene  to  make  desired  changes. 
They  hold  in  mind  that  it  was  intervention  that  ended  slavery 
and  bestowed  citizenship  upon  the  former  slaves.  It  is  their 
belief  that  if  a  case  of  sufficient  strength  can  be  made  out, 
another  period  of  intervention  will  ensue,  and  they  seek  to 
give  all  possible  aid  to  the  forces  abroad  upon  which  they  are 
relying  for  the  execution  of  a  policy  of  intervention. 

The  co-operators  do  not  expect  the  National  government 
to  intervene  forcibly  in  the  South  in  any  large  way.  They 
think  that  the  nation  is  going  to  confine  itself  to  a  policy  of 
moral  suasion  and  attempts  at  peaceful  penetration.  For  a 
number  of  years,  thoughtful  men  in  the  United  States  have 
been  convinced  of  the  great  danger  of  the  coming  of  two  wars 
involving  the  United  States  with  certain  foreign  powers.  One 
of  the  expected  wars  has  now  taken  place.  The  other  possi- 
bility is  taken  more  seriously  as  the  years  pass. 
Newspapers  in  the  South  already  are  publishing  editor- 
ials letting  the  world  know  just  where  that  section  is  going 
to  stand  if  there  is  to  be  an  armed  conflict.  The  Commercal 
Appeal,  Memphis,  Tennessee,  says:  "We  do  not  object  at  all 
to  the  note  thus  sounded  by  a  leading  Japanese  voice.  Indeed, 
we  are  glad  to  hear  it,  for  it  confirms  what  we  already  be- 
lieved, and  it  is  a  good  thing  to  know  exactly  what  one  may 
expect.  But  if  anyone  imagines  that  a  hundred  millions  of 

25 


Americans  >are  to  be  intimidated  by  such  language,  or  that 
they  can  be  made  to  swerve  a  hair's  breadth  from  their  own 
course,  or  that  they  will  desert  California,  then  such  a  person 
is  due  for  a  startling  disillusionment/'  It  has  been 
the  settled  policy  of  the  North  for  many  years  so 
to  act  as  to  have  the  South  in  this  fighting  mood, 
in  the  event  of  trouble  with  a  foreign  power.  This  considera- 
tion has  helped  to  cause  the  North  to  avoid  doing  that  which 
might  stir  deep,  bitter  and  powerful  resentment  in  the  breasts 
of  their  white  fellow  citizens  of  the  South.  They  realized 
clearly  that  in  the  time  of  a  great  war,  a  powerful,  united  and 
disaffected  section  could  easily  achieve  its  independence  if 
it  so  desired. 

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  1,700,000,000  human  beings 
living  in  the  world  today.  Of  this  number,  1,156,000,000  are 
colored  people  and  544,000,000  are  white.  Thus  the  colored 
people  in  the  world  outnumber  the  whites  more  than  two  to 
one.  While  the  white  people  constitute  only  about  thirty-two 
percent  of  the  world's  population,  they  control  just  a  little 
less  than  nine-tenths  of  the  world's  inhabitable  territory, 
a  great  deal  of  which  is  territory  in  which  colored  people 
overwhelmingly  outnumber  the  white  people.  In  the  face  of 
a  world  situation  on  this  order  cooperators  little  expect  one 
section  of  the  white  race  in  the  United  States  to  embitter  an- 
other to  the  point  of  fighting  over  the  question  of  putting 
political  control  into  the  hands  of  Negroes. 

A  policy  of  intervention  was  advocated  by  such  noted 
characters  as  Grant,  Benjamin  Harrison,  Thomas  B.  Seed, 
and  Hon.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  but  the  North  would  not  sus- 
tain them  in  their  contentions.  Ex-President  Taft  and  the 
late  Colonel  Theodore  Eoosevelt,  did  not  attempt  intervention 
and  both  let  it  be  known  publicly  that  they  did  not  regard  that 
method  as  one  calculated  to  do  any  good,  although  Mr.  Taft 
was  elected  to  the  presidency  on  a  platform  specifically  prom- 
ising intervention. 

It  is  well  to  understand  the  philosophy  of  political  cam- 
paigns in  the  United  States.  The  saying  of  things  that  seem 
to  point  in  the  direction  of  intervention  is  now  accepted  in 
thoughtful  circles  as  the  outgrowth  of  what  is  regarded  as  a 
political  necessity,  and  while  the  practice  is  derided  by  the 
opposing  political  party,  it  is  no  longer  allowed  to  excite  real 
apprehension.  Outside  of  campaigns,  ample  assurances  are 

26 


given  that  the  period  of  intervention  is  over.  The  late  Sen- 
ator A.  P.  Gorman  of  Maryland  is  credited  with  having  block- 
ed the  latest  formidable  movement  in  the  direction  of  inter- 
vention led  by  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  who  was  at  that 
time  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  When  Sen- 
ator Gorman  died,  the  New  York  Tribune,  the  leading  Repub- 
lican paper  of  the  East,  cited  his  blocking  of  the  movement 
toward  intervention,  as  a  great  service  to  the  nation. 

The  late  James  G.  Elaine  thus  summed  up  the  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  intervention  by  the  national  government: — 
"When  therefore  the  nation  by  subsequent  change  in  its  Con- 
stitution declared  that  the  State  shall  not  exclude  the  Negro 
from  the  right  of  suffrage,  it  neutralized  and  surrendered 
the  contingent  right  before  held,  to  exclude  him  from  the  ba- 
sis of  apportionment.  Congress  is  thus  plainly  deprived  by 
the  Fifteenth  Amendment  of  certain  powers  over  representa- 
tion in  the  South,  which  it  previously  possessed  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  Before  the  adopt- 
ion of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  if  a  State  should  exclude 
the  Negro  from  suffrage,  the  next  step  would  be  for  Congress 
to  exclude  the  Negro  from  the  basis  of  apportionment.  After 
the  adoption  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  if  a  State  should 
exclude  the  Negro  from  suffrage,  the  next  step  would  be  for 
the  Supreme  Court  to  declare  that  the  act  was  unconstitution- 
al, and  therefore  null  and  void.  The  essential  and  inestimable 
value  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  still  remains  in  the  three 
other  sections,  and  pre-eminently  in  the  first  section. 

"The  contentions  which  have  arisen  between  political 
parties  as  to  the  rights  of  Negro  suffrage  in  the  Southern 
States,  would  scarcely  be  cognizable  judicially  under  either 
the  14th  or  15th  Amendment  to  the  Constitution.  Both  of 
those  amendments  operate  as  inhibitions  upon  the  power  of 
the  State,  and  do  not  have  reference  to  those  irregular  acts 
of  the  people  which  find  no  authorization  in  the  public  statut- 
es. The  defect  in  both  Amendments,  in  so  far  as  their  main  ob- 
ject of  securing  rights  to  the  colored  race  is  involved,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  they  do  not  operate  directly  upon  the  people, 
and  therefore  Congress  is  not  endowed  with  the  pertinent 
and  'applicable  power  to  give  redress. " 

In  view  of  all  these  difficulties  in  the  way,  a  party  of  co- 
operators  has  sprung  up  in  the  Negro  race.  Thus,  while  the 
interventionists  are  on  the  search  for  brave,  fair  minded 

27 


white  men  in  the  North  to  lead  the  way,  the  co-operators  are 
making  the  same  sort  of  search  for  white  mer.  in  the  South 
with  hearts  charged  with  a  sense  of  justice  for  all  men.  That 
the  nation  as  a  whole  is  depending  on  the  work  of  the  Negro 
co-operators  is  made  plain  in  the  essay  "The  American  Ne- 
gro and  Changed  Conditions. " 


The  American  Negro  And 
Changed  Conditions 

The  colored  people  of  the  United  States  have  grown  accus- 
tomed to  looking  to  the  North  for  the  attainment  of  results  in 
the  South.  Freedom,  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  constitu- 
tion, college  education,  and  high  political  station  are  among 
the  things  that  came  to  them  from  the  North.  Nothing  is  more 
natural  than  that  they  should  continue  to  look  expectantly  in 
that  direction.  While  it  is  true  that  these  great  things  have 
come  out  of  the  North,  in  considering  the  prospect  of  getting 
other  things  from  the  same  source,  common  sense  dictates  that 
account  be  taken  of  changed  conditions.  The  things  cited 
came  at  a  time  of  bitter  hatred  between  the  sections.  When 
the  North  not  only  felt  that  the  South  was  entirely  in  error, 
but  that  she  was  entitled  to  dire  punishment.  With  the  North 
in  that  frame  of  mind,  it  was  not  difficult  to  arouse  it  to  the 
point  of  over-riding  utterly  the  wishes  of  the  South. 

NORTH'S  CHANGED  ATTITUDE 

Now,  time  has  fully  healed  the  wound  in  the  nation's  heart. 
Instead  of  hating  the  South,  the  North  now  loves,  respects  and 
sympathizes  with  it.  There  is  no  more  staunch  and  consist- 
ent Republican  newspaper  in  the  North  than  The  New  York 
Tribune.  It  bears  witness  to  the  change  of  sentiment  in  the 
North  in  these  words :  "The  ancient  suspicion  and  criticism  are 
dying  out,  and  if  the  North  has  doubts  about  any  steps  the 
South  is  taking  to  solve  its  peculiar  problem,  it  is  slower  than 
its  wont  to  condemn,  quicker  to  admit  the  difficulty  that  be- 
sets the  South,  less  ready  to  present  offhand  solutions  and  more 
disposed  to  give  full  faith  and  credit  to  the  honesty  of  South- 
ern convictions  regarding  the  necessity  of  what  the  South 
is  doing". 

The  reversal  of  the  theory  of  government  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  that  grew  out  of  the  war  with  Spain  has  had  its 
effect  on  the  policy  of  the  North  toward  the  South  on  the  race 
question.  The  South  had  been  insisting  that  the  Negroes  as  a 
race  were  unprepared  to  exercise  the  full  governing  power  and 
should  pass  through  a  period  of  tutelage.  When  the  Phillipine 
Islands  came  into  the  possession  of  the  United  States  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  Spanish-American  war,  the  North  assumed  the  posi- 

29 


tion  that  the  Filipinos  were  not  prepared  to  exercise  the  full 
governing  power  and  should  be  made  to  pass  through  a  period 
of  tutelage,  whether  they  desired  to  do  so  or  not.  It  would 
have  been  a  difficult  thing  for  the  North  longer  to  denounce 
as  rank  sinners  all  who  held  to  the  theory  that  the  degree  of 
development  attained  by  a  race  should  be  a  factor  in  shaping 
the  policy  to  be  adopted  toward  that  race  with  reference  to 
matters  of  government.  The  eloquent  orator  or  the  fiery  writer 
condemning  the  iniquity  of  ruling  people  without  their  con- 
sent would  have  had  the  image  of  the  Philippines  rising  to 
lessen  the  fervor  of  the  denunciation.  So  the  North  grew 
milder  in  its  attitude  toward  the  South. 

EFFECT  OF  UNPREPARED  IMMIGRANTS. 

Another  factor  in  changing  Northern  sentiment  has  been  the 
going  to  that  section  of  a  large  number  of  colored  who  had  had 
no  opportunity  to  acquire  the  habits  and  graces  of  cultured 
city  people.  The  sharp  contrast  between  the  newcomers  and 
the  Northern  white  people  has  raised  a  question  as  to  whether 
people  in  their  general  state  of  development  are  fully  prepared 
for  all  the  responsibilties  of  citizenship. 

PAST  EXPERIENCES 

There  was  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  South  at  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War  when  the  Negroes  played  a  conspicious  part  in 
the  affairs  of  government.  The  written  record  of  those  days, 
whether  true  or  false,  has  not  tended  to  build  the  faith  of  the 
North  in  the  capacity  of  the  Negro  race  to  operate  govern- 
ments. 

POLICY  WHERE  NEGROES  ARE  IN  THE  MAJORITY. 

In  some  sections  of  the  South  the  Negroes  outnumber  the 
white  people.  This  condition  exists  in  two  states,  Mississippi 
and  South  Carolina,  and  many  Southern  cities  and  towns;  in 
21  counties  in  Alabama,  14  in  Arkansas,  10  in  Flordia,  66  in 
Georgia,  25  in  Louisiana,  38  in  Mississippi,  14  in  North  Caro- 
lina, 2  in  Tennessee,  8  in  Texas,  33  in  South  Carolina,  and  32 
in  Virginia.  Holding  in  mind  the  present  state  of  public  opin- 
ion in  the  North  is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  section  is 
ready  to  use  its  power  to  put  the  Negroes  into  a  position  where 
their  majorities  will  not  only  enable  them  to  rule  themselves 
but  their  white  neighbors  as  well? 

30 


Just  below  Memphis,  Tenn.,  lies  Tunica  County,  Mississippi. 
The  colored  people  of  the  county  outnumber  the  white  people 
about  in  the  ratio  of  eighty-five  to  fifteen.  If  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment takes  charge  of  elections  in  that  county  it  will  mean 
that  the  eighty-five  Negroes  there  will  not  only  govern  them- 
selves but  will  also  govern  their  fifteen  white  neighbors.  Is 
the  North  ready  to  use  force  to  bring  about  that  result?  A 
nation  that  sends  soldiers  to  enable  white  people  to  control 
the  colored  people  of  Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  Porto  Rico, 
Hayti  and  the  Virgin  Isles,  would  hardly  so  far  reverse  that 
policy  as  to  send  troops  into  states  of  the  main  land  to  guaran- 
tee Negro  control.  The  truth  is  that  instead  of  the  North  being 
in  the  mood  at  present  to  use  its  greater  strength  to  put  Ne- 
groes in  control  where  they  are  in  the  majority,  the  Northern 
organs  of  public  sentiment  are  beginning  to  say  to  the  world 
that  under  like  conditions  in  the  North,  the  policy  of  that  sec- 
tion would  change.  The  Chicago  Tribune,  a  staunch  Republi- 
can newspaper,  says:  "When  there  are  enough  Chicago  Ne- 
groes to  elect  Negro  mayors,  judges,  and  legislators,  even  Wil- 
liam Hale  Thompson  will  be  with  the  dominant  white  minor- 
ity." 

LOCAL  SENTIMENT  AN  IMPORTANT  FACTOR. 

But  even  if  the  present  feeling  in  the  North  were  all  that 
the  Negroes  desire  it  to  be,  still  there  exists  the  same  sense  of 
danger  involved  in  ignoring  and  over-riding  the  predominant 
sentiment  of  millions.  England  was  warned  against  such  a 
course  but  failed  to  heed  the  warning  and  thus  lost  the  Thir- 
teen Colonies.  Sir  Edmund  Burke,  sounding  the  note  of  warn- 
ing, said :  "The  use  of  force  is  but  temporary.  It  may  subdue 
for  a  moment,  but  it  does  not  remove  the  necessity  of  sub- 
duing again,  and  a  nation  is  not  governed  which  is  perpetually 
to  be  conquered." 

The  late  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine  said,  "The  task  of  enforcing 
obedience  to  laws,  when  obedience  is  not  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people  is  the  most  difficult  task  ever  imposed  upon  the  gov- 
erning power." 

NEED  OF  A  UNITED  NATION 

The  United  States  has  moved  forward  into  a  commanding 
position  in  the  affairs  of  the  world  and  occupies  a  position  that 
has  in  it  possibilities  of  danger.  Our  soil  and  unoccupied 

31 


lands  make  an  appeal  to  over-crowded  oriental  countries,  but 
our  nation  waves  its  hands  and  orders  the  orientals  to  stay  from 
her  shores.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  shields  the  Western  Hemis- 
phere from  European  nations  whose  over-crowded  condition 
causes  them  to  look  longingly  over  here.  If  our  advantages 
be  regarded  as  a  crown,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "uneasy 
lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown."  The  voting  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  for  the  increase  of  our  navy,  and  of  many 
millions  for  airships  is  a  sign  that  our  statesmen  feel  the  last 
war  has  not  yet  been  fought.  They  know  not  what  awaits  the 
country  in  the  way  of  wars.  They  desire  to  keep  all  members 
of  the  national  family  content  with  their  membership.  They 
are  determined  that  the  coming  of  possible  wars  shall  not  find 
the  United  States  dismembered  in  spirit,  but  thoroughly  united. 
They  are  bent  on  seeing  that  no  section  will  desire  to  leave  the 
union. 

Hon.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  who  was  the  unflinching  spokes- 
man of  the  Northern  element  that  at  one  time  demanded  fed- 
eral regulation  of  elections  in  the  South,  states  his  present 
views  in  these  words : 

"The  spirit  of  national  unity  is  vital  to  the  United  States. 
It  has  been  the  dearest  hope  of  all  right-thinking  men  ever 
since  the  Civil  War  to  see  that  spirit  rule  throughout  the  coun- 
try. Wonderfully  developed  by  the  few  months  of  the  Spanish 
War,  it  has  become  under  the  stress  of  the  great  war  with  Ger- 
many stronger  and  more  vivid  than  ever,  and  should  be  cul- 
tivated by  all  men  and  women  and  by  all  parties. 

"We  are  now  confronted  by  the  gravest  problems,  at  home 
and  abroad,  which  this  country  has  ever  faced  except  in  the 
days  of  war.  For  their  successful  solution  we  must  have  the 
keenest  sense  of  national  unity  everywhere.  We  must  all  deal 
with  these  problems  as  Americans  and  without  any  sectional 
leanings  or  prejudices.  The  Republican  party  should  make 
its  appeal,  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  to  all  Americans 
who  love  their  country,  without  regard  to  section  or  difference 
of  long  ago,  now  happily  dispersed  and  gone,  we  believe,  for- 
ever." 

BLOOD  FELLOWSHIP. 

Whether  it  is  pleasing  or  displeasing,  it  must  be  realized 
that  the  North  recognizes  the  extreme  difficulty  of  main- 
taining peaceful  relations  with  the  South  while  at  the  same 

32 


time  coercing  it  with  refernce  to  the  colored  people.  If 
forced  to  choose  between  the  friendship  of  the  white  people 
of  the  South  and  that  of  the  colored  people,  between  stimu- 
lating a  new  desire  on  the  part  of  the  white  people  of  the  South 
to  get  out  of  the  union,  and  remaining  inactive  with  regard 
to  matters  affecting  colored  people,  the  white  people  of  the 
North  might  decide  to  please  the  stronger  side  and  also  heed 
the  call  of  blood  fellowship. 

EVIDENCES  OF  CHANGED  SENTIMENT. 

Incidents  are  not  lacking  to  make  clear  the  present  state  of 
the  mind  of  the  nation  toward  regulating  affairs  in  the  South. 
Recently  colored  leaders  attempted  to  have  congress  enact 
laws  touching  the  separation  of  the  races  in  interstate  travel. 
Only  twelve  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  voted 
in  favor  of  interference  with  the  privilege  which  the  states 
now  have  of  separating  passengers  according  to  race.  More 
recently  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  handed 
down  a  decision  sustaining  the  rights  of  the  states  in  this  mat- 
ter. One  of  the  most  representative  Negro  newspapers  in  the 
country,  The  Freeman,  published  at  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  com- 
menting on  the  drift  of  sentiment  with  reference  to  the  race 
says:  "We  see  on  all  sides  a  feverish  activity  to  get  away 
from  the  Negro. " 

The  late  Prof.  Nathaniel  S.  Shaler,  one  of  the  deans  of  Har- 
vard University,  in  summing  up  the  state  of  the  public  mind 
in  the  North  on  the  race  question,  said,  in  his  book,  "The 
Neighbor:"  "The  need  of  abandoning  Federal  legislation  con- 
cerning the  Negroes  has,  at  length,  after  a  generation  of  blun- 
dering, become  apparent  to  our  people,  as  is  evident  from  the 
neglect  of  a  Republican  Congress  to  go  further  on  the  mis- 
taken way." 

A  REJECTED  PLEA  FOR  INTERVENTION. 

Largely  through  the  vote  of  Negroes,  one  Adelbert  Ames, 
who  hailed  from  Massachusetts,  was  elected  to  the  governor- 
ship of  Mississippi  soon  after  the  Civil  War.  When  the  white 
people  of  the  state  began  to  resort  to  force  with  a  view  to 
driving  him  from  power,  he  made  a  plea  to  President  Grant 
for  federal  troops. 

President  Grant  urged  Congress  to  pass  a  law  that  would 
have  permitted  the  use  of  federal  troops  to  handle  situations 

33 


like  that  of  Gov.  Ames.  This  was  in  1875,  when  the  passions 
aroused  by  the  Civil  War  were  still  strong;  nevertheless,  a 
Republican  Congress  refused  to  pass  the  bill.  If  Gen.  Grant 
was  not  allowed  to  send  troops  to  sustain  a  white  man  from 
the  North  in  the  governorship  of  Mississippi,  when  the  Civil 
War  was  but  ten  years  in  the  past,  is  it  likely  that,  with  the 
Civil  War  much  further  in  the  distance,  there  is  sufficient  sen- 
timent in  the  nation  to  cause  troops  to  be  sent  to  sustain  of- 
ficials owing  their  election  to  office  to  votes  of  Negroes  cast 
in  opposition  to  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  white  pop- 
ulation? 

PUBLIC  SENTIMENT  CONTROLS. 

From  time  to  time  campaign  utterances  of  candidates  for 
the  presidency  of  the  United  States  may  seem  to  point  strong- 
ly toward  a  policy  of  intervention,  but  all  that  a  candidate 
says  must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  public  sentiment. 
Whatever  may  be  his  personal  views,  he  can  do  but  little 
beyond  what  is  sanctioned  by  prevailing  public  sentiment. 

Perhaps  the  most  vigorous  character  that  ever  sat  in  the 
president's  seat  was  the  late  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
Early  in  his  first  administration  he  asserted  his  desire  to 
have  some  Negro  hold  an  important  political  office  in  every 
state  where  there  were  large  nunmbers  of  Negroes.  He 
began  his  movement  by  nominating  a  Negro  for  an  important 
office  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  The  movement  was  not  sustained 
by  a  vigorous  public  sentiment.  As  a  result,  few  appoint- 
ments were  made  in  the  face  of  a  hostile  local  public  senti- 
ment, and  his  successor  in  the  office  of  president  openly  re- 
nounced the  attempt  and  gave  the  assurance  that  he  would 
be  guided  in  such  matters  by  local  sentiment. 

UNWRITTEN  LAWS. 

In  spite  of  what  has  been  said  in  explanation  of  the  na- 
tional policy,  there  may  be  those  who  base  their  hope  of 
national  intervention  upon  the  stimulation  of  reverence  for 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  which  expressly  forbids 
the  denial  to  citizens  of  the  right  to  vote  "on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude,"  and  gives  to  Con- 
gress the  power  to  enforce  that  provision  in  the  constitution. 

It  is  important  to  know  the  unwritten  as  well  as  the 
written  laws  of  our  country.  It  is  an  error  of  great  magni- 

34 


tude  to  suppose  that  Anglo-Saxons  have  only  one  way  in 
which  to  repeal  laws  or  modify  constitutions.  Merely  watch- 
ing legislative  bodies  to  observe  what  laws  are  passed  or 
repealed  does  not  go  far  enough  to  find  out  all  that  has 
happened.  Anglo-Saxons  have  a  way  of  repealing  enact- 
ments by  a  common  understanding  among  themselves.  Dif- 
ficult and  delicate  questions,  the  adjustment  of  which,  by 
legislation,  might  bring  to  a  crisis  other  grave  questions 
that  are  pregnant  with  possible  evil,  are  settled  by  the  pro- 
cess of  common  understanding  rather  than  by  legislative 
enactment. 

A  question  of  the  order  named  is  that  of  the  authority  of 
the  King  of  England  to  veto  laws  passed  by  Parliament. 
The  right  of  veto,  formerly  exercised  by  the  king,  has  never 
been  withdrawn  by  law,  but  has  been  set  aside  by  common 
understanding.  Agitation  in  favor  of  the  enactment  of  a 
law  withdrawing  the  right  of  veto  might  lead  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  desirability  of  the  office  of  king,  which  has  ceased 
to  function  in  the  old  way  since  England  has  become  a 
democracy  in  practice,  although  not  in  name.  The  king  is 
yet  the  dominating  figure  of  the  social  life  of  the  nation, 
and  is  useful  in  the  diplomatic  service  and  as  a  rallying  cen- 
ter for  the  affections  of  all  the  people.  There  is  a  strong 
desire  to  maintain  these  helpful  features  associated  with 
the  office  of  king,  but  he  is  not  desired  as  a  controlling  fac- 
tor in  legislation.  This  state  of  affairs  has  caused  the  people 
of  England  to  eliminate  the  king  from  legislative  affairs  by 
the  policy  of  common  understanding,  while  he  is  retained  in 
the  other  spheres.  Thus,  for  many  years,  no  ruler  of  Eng- 
land has  vetoed  a  bill  and  none  are  expected  to  do  so  in 
the  future. 

AMENDMENT    BY    COMMON    UNDERSTANDING. 

Has  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  been  modified  by  the  pro- 
cess of  common  understanding,  which,  in  Anglo-Saxon  life, 
is  as  effective  as  a  legal  enactment?  The  amendment  has 
been  retained  in  the  constitution  as  a  national  ideal  toward 
which  all  the  states  are  to  strive,  but  common  understanding 
for  the  time  being  has  shorn  Congress  of  the  privilege  of 
being  the  power  to  put  it  into  force.  Each  Congress  that  has 
attempted  to  override  this  common  understanding  has  been 

35 


turned  out  of  power.  While  the  ideal  remains  in  the  consti- 
tution the  common  understanding  has  assigned  to  the  several 
states  the  task  of  working  up  to  it. 

NEGOTIATION  SUPERSEDES  INTERVENTION. 

The  case  is  clear,  beyond  all  manner  of  doubt,  that  the 
nation  has  passed  from  a  policy  of  intervention  to  that  of 
negotiation.  The  late  Col.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  stating  the 
new  demand  of  the  nation,  said  that  the  only  practicable 
way  of  securing  justice  and  fair  dealing  for  the  colored  man 
is  "by  encouraging  in  every  part  of  the  country  good  feeling 
between  the  white  and  colored  men  who  are  neighbors,  and 
by  appealing  to  the  white  men,  who  are  the  colored  man's 
neighbor,  and  who  alone  can  help,  to  give  such  help,  not 
because  they  are  forced  by  outsiders  to  'do  so,  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  honorable  obligation  freely  recognized  on  their  own 
part." 

THE  CIVIL  WAR  A  FIGHT  FOR  ANGLO-SAXON 
SOLIDARITY. 

As  an  offset  to  all  that  has  been  here  presented  there 
may  come  into  the  mind  the  thought  that  the  North  was 
asleep  once  before  on  the  race  question,  and  woke  to  fight, 
and  therefore  may  be  awakened  again.  Lest  that  thought 
take  root  and  thus  cause  false  hopes  to  thrive,  it  is  impor- 
tant for  all  time  to  come  that  the  Negroes  catch  the  true 
significance  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  not  a  case  of  one 
Anglo-Saxon  pounding  another  to  make  him  do  right  to- 
ward someone  else.  It  was  rather  the  case  of  one  brother 
grappling  with  another  to  prevent  the  breaking  up  of  the 
family  because  of  a  family  quarrel  about  an  outsider.  In 
an  effort  to  maintain  the  family  union,  the  United  States 
Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives  passed,  by  two- 
thirds  majorities  in  each  house,  a  resolution  submitting  to 
the  states  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  constitution  prohib- 
iting any  future  amendment  that  would  give  Congress  the 
right  to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  existed. 
Those  of  the  Negro  race  who  are  expecting  the  North  to 
follow  criticism  of  the  South  with  a  policy  of  coercion  should 
note  well  this  expressed  willingness  of  the  North  to  endure 
slavery  forever  if  such  a  course  would  but  hold  the  white 
people  of  the  South  in  the  family. 

36 


CHANGES  ARE  SOMETIMES  NECESSARY. 

The  wisest  races  of  men  sometimes  make  mistakes  in  choos- 
ing the  ground  upon  which  battles  are  to  be  fought.  The 
Allies  were  entirely  in  error  in  their  original  plans  to  cap- 
ture the  Dardanelles.  The  victory  that  brought  that  result 
came  upon  ground  far  removed  from  the  place  originally 
chosen  for  the  attack.  When  the  course  of  events  clearly 
demonstrated  that  the  Allies  had  chosen  the  wrong  ground 
upon  which  to  make  their  attack,  there  was  no  tender  nurs- 
ing of  false  pride,  but  a  frank  admission  of  error.  Persist- 
ence did  not  degenerate  into  stubbornness.  They  changed 
the  battle  ground  and  won  the  battle. 

When  the  South  felt  the  need  of  rousing  the  fighting  blood 
of  her  sons,  she  put  forward  Robert  Toombs,  who  could 
sound  in  thrilling  fashion  the  bugle  call  to  war.  When  the 
struggle  was  shifted  from  the  field  of  blood  to  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  people  of  the  North  as  to  the  course  to  pursue, 
the  South  put  forward  the  eloquent  Henry  W.  Grady  to 
win  patient  consideration,  while  the  leaders  of  the  South 
went  about  the  difficult  task  of  slowly  readjusting  the 
minds  of  the  people  to  changed  conditions.  If  the  scene 
of  the  struggle  as  to  the  attitude  the  South  is  to  pursue  is 
to  be  transferred  to  the  South,  and  the  minds  and  the  hearts 
of  the  Southern  white  people  are  to  be  approached  for  man- 
ifestations of  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  colored  people, 
then  clearly  the  need  of  the  Negro  race  is  men  who  have 
the  tact,  the  wisdom,  the  courage,  the  patience,  the  broad 
human  sympathy  and  the  righteousness  of  heart  so  neces- 
sary to  leadership  in  a  cause  so  grave  and  delicate. 

If,  then,  we  are  to  give  the  nation's  present  plan  a  trial, 
there  must  come  a  revision  of  the  plans  of  those  who  have 
been  hoping  for  the  coming  of  a  second  Garrison,  a  second 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  a  second  Frederick  Douglass  with  the 
power  so  to  stir  the  heart  of  the  North  as  to  induce  it  to  use 
its  huge  majorities  and  the  machinery  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment to  grant  certain  privileges  to  the  Negroes,  regardless 
of  the  extent  and  degree  of  intensity  of  the  opposition  to  be 
encountered  in  the  South.  The  need  of  the  hour  is  not  a 
Balaam  to  curse,  but  an  Esther  to  plead  successfully  the  cause 
of  millions,  winning  for  them  sympathy  and  patience,  where 
patience  is  needed,  and  co-operation  and  full  justice  at  all 
times  and  everywhere  in  all  the  avenues  of  life. 

37 


QUALIFICATIONS  NEEDED  FOR  THE  NEW  TASK. 

To  do  any  good  whatever  for  the  millions  of  Negroes  that 
are  now  in  the  South  and  for  the  millions  that  are  yet  to  be 
born  there,  this  Esther  must  be  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
fairer  minded,  progressive  white  people  of  the  South  that 
they  may  aid  in  the  great  task  of  opening  larger  doors  of  op- 
portunity for  the  members  of  the  Negro  race. 

Up  to  the  present  time  there  has  not  been  written,  perhaps, 
a  clearer  or  more  comprehensive  treatment  of  the  race  ques- 
tion in  the  United  States  than  that  presented  by  Mr.  George 
S.  Merriam  in  his  great  book,  "The  Negro  and  the  Nation." 
He  outlines  the  qualifications  demanded  of  Negro  leaders  by 
the  nation  in  these  words :  "Self-abnegation,  patience,  power 
alike  to  wait  and  to  do — these  are  the  prices  they  are  called 
to  pay.  But  the  prize  set  before  them  is  worth  it  all — the 
deliverance  of  their  people,  and  the  harmonizing  of  the  long 
alienated  races." 

The  Negro  leadership  for  which  the  nation  and  the  hour 
call  is  not  a  leadership  that  merely  reiterates  the  ideals  upon 
which  the  government  is  founded,  but  one  that  has  a  prac- 
tical suggestion  as  to  how  those  ideals  can  be  carried  out 
where  the  ratio  of  the  Negro  population  to  the  white  threat- 
ens the  white  population  with  political  submergence,  a  fate 
to  which  the  interested  white  people  object,  with  the  white 
race  throughout  the  world  sanctioning  the  objection.  The 
task  is  no  easy  one,  and  the  surest  sign  of  unfitness  for  the 
task  is  evidence  that  it  is  regarded  as  something  that  can  be 
handled  by  a  logical  syllogism,  or  by  a  ready  snap  of  the 
finger  or  by  the  mere  use  of  bitter  words  of  denunciation. 

FROM  DENOUNCER  TO  PERSUADER. 

When  the  chief  expectation  of  the  Negro  race  was  help 
from  the  outside,  the  man  with  the  greatest  capacity  as  a  de- 
nouncer was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  Now  that  the  situation  has 
entirely  changed  and  the  nation  hesitates,  hesitates,  hesitates 
to  apply  force,  the  prime  need  is  no  longer  a  denouncer,  but 
a  persuader. 

Can  the  Negro  race  produce  a  persuader?  Having  come 
over  from  an  era  of  simple  denunciation  will  the  colored 
people  of  the  United  States  have  the  spiritual  vision  to  ac- 
cept and  co-operate  with  the  persuader,  or  will  his  necessary 

38 


kindliness  of  tone,  general  attitude  of  conciliation,  and  his 
seeking  of  progress,  foot  by  foot,  be  understood?  Feelings 
on  race  questions  are  intense,  and  when  overwhelmed  by 
these  feelings  men  sometimes  misunderstand  their  best  and 
truest  friends.  The  white  people  of  the  South  misunderstood 
Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  always  in  his  heart  their  greatest 
friend.  But  Lincoln,  though  misunderstood,  stood  by  those 
whom  he  dearly  loved,  went  right  on  loving  and  working  on 
earth  until  a  misguided  hand  sent  his  spirit  into  the  spirit 
land.  The  call  is  unto  the  Negro  workers  in  the  new  era  to 
be  faithful  unto  death. 

DO  NOT  CLOSE  UNHEALED  SORES. 

The  course  here  suggested  as  being  demanded  by  the 
plain  attitude  of  the  nation  and  the  words  of  its  recognized 
spokesman  does  not  involve  cessation  of  protest  against  every 
form  of  injustice.  By  no  means.  It  will  do  the  nation  and 
the  world  no  good  to  attempt  to  close  up  an  unhealed  sore. 
The  pent  up  corruption  would  affect  its  entire  life.  There- 
fore, protest,  vigorous,  unceasing,  uncompromising  protest 
against  every  form  of  injustice  should  be  made,  but  it  should 
be  made  so  as  to  bear  needed  fruit  with  the  local  forces 
which  the  nation  has  decided  not  to  attempt  to  reach  at  the 
present  by  coercive  measures. 

A  STUPENDOUS  TASK. 

Before  this  whole  stupendous  task  of  favorably  affecting 
public  sentiment  in  the  South,  the  pessimists,  the  timorous, 
the  faint-hearted  may  feel  deserted,  helpless,  paralyzed,  and 
may  demand  of  history  to  furnish  grounds  of  hope.  Time  and 
again  in  the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  hostile  senti- 
ment been  changed.  The  white  women  and  the  prohibition- 
ists started  out  in  the  midst  of  hostility  of  the  rankest  sort, 
but  kept  struggling  until  the  hearts  of  the  people  were 
changed.  The  South  waged  war  not  desiring  to  let  go  its 
slaves.  Since  that  time  it  has  taxed  itself  to  educate  the  chil- 
dren of  those  slaves.  A  governor  of  one  of  the  ex-slave  states 
is  now  engaged  in  a  movement  to  secure  an  endowment  of 
two  million  dollars  for  a  Negro  University  in  his  state. 


39 


GROUNDS   FOR   HOPE. 

To  those  who  think  that  there  is  something  in  the  Southern 
soil  or  atmosphere  or  tradition  that  renders  hopeless  move- 
ments in  the  Negro's  interest,  let  history  speak.  James  G. 
Birney,  born  in  a  Southern  state,  Kentucky,  and  living  later 
in  Alabama,  in  1840  was  the  first  nominee  for  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States  upon  an  anti-slavery  platform.  It  was 
he  who  led  the  planting  of  the  seeds  that  bore  harvest  in 
1860.  When,  in  1856,  the  Republican  party  was  born,  and 
was  in  need  of  a  vigorous  character  to  lead  it  to  conquer  first 
the  strongholds  of  the  North,  the  man  chosen  for  the  task  was 
John  C.  Freemont,  who  was  born  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  and 
reared  in  South  Carolina. 

One  might  say  that  the  poor  white  man  in  the  South  will 
ever  hold  the  Negro  down.  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  great 
emancipator,  was  a  Southerner  out  of  the  poorest  class.  It 
might  be  said  that  the  men  named  were  not  Southerners  at 
the  time  of  their  respective  contributions  to  Negro  welfare. 
But,  those  were  white  Southerners,  all,  who  defeated,  at  the 
polls  in  Arkansas,  the  grandfather  clause  looking  toward 
Negro  disfranchisement.  It  was  Chief  Justice  White  of 
Louisiana  who  handed  down  the  decision  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  wiping  the  grandfather  clause  from  the  con- 
stitutions of  such  states  in  the  South  as  had  adopted  it. 

The  proposed  amendment  to  the  federal  constitution  giving 
the  women  the  privilege  of  voting  had  secured  the  adherence 
of  thirty-five  states,  but  needed  one  more  state,  in  order  to 
have  favorable  action  on  the  part  of  the  necessary  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  states.  It  was  contended  in  the  South  that 
the  adoption  of  this  Amendment  would  confer  the  privilege 
of  voting  upon  millions  of  Negro  women.  In  spite  of  this  ar- 
gument, it  was  Tennessee,  a  Southern  state,  that  boldly 
stepped  forth  and  ratified  the  amendment,  thus  furnishing 
the  necessary  additional  state  at  a  time  when  the  prospects 
for  early  success  were  indeed  gloomy. 

WHEN  NEGRO  VOTERS  FEEL  FREE  IN  HEART  AND 

MIND. 

The  suggestion  that  the  white  South  is  open  to  reason  on 
the  question  of  Negro  suffrage  may  be  hooted  at  because  of 
past  actions  and  present"  conditions,  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  in  times  past  white  people  of  the  South  have  re- 

40 


garaed  tne  efforts  of  Negroes  in  politics  as  being  efforts  di- 
rected toward  rewarding  the  North  for  past  favors  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  South.  We  all  know  full  well  what  the  attitude 
of  the  white  South  has  been  toward  efforts  that  were  con- 
strued to  be  in  the  interests  of  Northern  rivals.  It  is  yet  to 
be  determined  what  the  attitude  of  the  white  South  would 
be  if  the  white  people  were  fully  convinced  that  the  Negroes 
were  at  last  free  in  heart  and  mind  to  use  the  ballot  to  foster 
the  interests  of  themselves  and  their  neighbors.  Self-interest 
is  one  of  the  most  powerful  motives  operating  in  the  human 
bosom.  Negroes  struggling  for  the  ballot  with  the  self-inter- 
est of  the  white  South  arrayed  against  them  naturally  would 
fare  worse  than  if  that  self-interest  were  enlisted  in  their 
favor.  The  suffrage  question  in  the  South  is  not  a  hopeless 
tangle  when  the  proper  state  of  mind  has  been  reached  all 
around. 

BEHOLD  THE  JEWS. 

If,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said,  pessimism  still  grips 
the  heart  of  a  Negro  and  causes  him  to  regard  as  a  wicked 
mocker  anyone  who  comes  bearing  a  lighted  torch  of  hope, 
then  let  him  but  glance  at  the  record  of  the  Jews,  who  have 
furnished  the  world  with  its  guiding  moral  principles  and 
religious  ideals.  After  one  hundred  years  of  suffering,  the 
Jews  of  England,  in  the  year  1290,  were  driven  out  of  the 
country  and  were  not  allowed  to  return  until  the  time  of 
Cromwell,  nearly  four  hundred  years  later.  Though  the  laws 
expelling  them  were  not  repealed,  they  were  finally  allowed 
to  return,  and  after  a  little  more  than  two  hundred  years 
from  the  time  of  their  return  they  had  developed  the  premier 
of  the  country,  who  was  next  in  power  to  the  king.  At  Strass- 
burg,  in  France,  two  thousand  Jews  were  burned  on  one 
scaffold.  In  all  European  countries  they  were  segregated 
and  denied  the  right  to  farm  or  serve  as  mechanics.  The 
legal  oppression  of  the  Jews  lasted  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years  and  only  came  to  an  end  with  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  At  a  time  when  the  Jews  of  Germany  were 
in  a  far  worse  plight  than  are  the  Negroes  of  the  United 
States,  Moses  'Mendelsohn,  a  Jew,  won  the  esteem  and  culti- 
vated the  good  will  of  the  German  people  and  was  one  of 
the  most  potent  factors  in  paving  the  way  for  their  escape 
from  the  ills  under  which  they  had  suffered. 

41 


A  VITAL  QUESTION. 

Can  the  Negroes  develop  a  man  with  Mendelsohn's  spirit, 
possessing  the  power  to  lead  white  America,  North  and  South, 
into  larger  sympathy  with  the  just  aspirations  of  the  Negro 
race;  or  will  the  demand  go  forth  that  the  test  of  loyalty  to 
the  race  must  be  a  bitter,  unsympathetic  tone  that  seals  the 
heart  of  white  America  against  further  approach?  In  this 
universe  of  changing  conditions  the  acid  test  of  all  living 
creatures,  that  which  determines  whether  they  live  or  die, 
go  forward  or  backward  or  remain  stationary  is  their  capac- 
ity for  readaptation.  The  test  is  now  applied  to  the  Negro 
race  as  to  whether  it  can  change  from  the  policy  of  being 
content  merely  to  hold  up  the  evils  in  the  South  to  outsiders 
for  correction  to  holding  them  up  to  the  South  in  a  way  to 
secure  co-operation  or  the  acquiescence  of  the  South  in  plans 
leading  to  their  corrections. 

Perhaps  in  every  age  of  the  world  since  the  crucifixion  of 
Christ  there  have  been  people  who  have  lived  in  hourly  ex- 
pectation of  His  return  to  earth  in  person.  But  those  who 
have  thus  held  have  not  forbidden  the  activities  of  others 
who  believed  that  His  kingdom  was  to  come  in  some  other 
way.  So  those  leaders  of  the  Negro  race  who  live  in  hourly 
expectation  of  seeing  the  strong  arm  of  the  national  govern- 
ment stretched  throughout  the  nation  in  a  way  to  result  in 
the  election  of  Negro  governors  of  states,  mayors  of  cities, 
and  so  forth,  wherever  the  Negro  population  exceeds  that  of 
the  whites — regardless  as  to  how  the  white  people  of  the 
regions  involved  would  view  such  happenings,  must  not  grow 
to  feel  that  they  alone  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  only  anoint- 
ed, working  for  the  good  of  their  group.  "There  is  a  way 
that  seemeth  right  unto  a  man,  but  the  end  thereof  are  the 
ways  of  death/ 

In  the  end,  the  policy  of  appealing  to  the  best  that  there 
is  in  men  must  win,  if  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  to  continue 
to  be  the  hope  of  mankind.  And  though  the  stars  fall  they 
shall  thus  continue. 


42 


Two  Political  Methods  Contrasted 

No  question  in  American  politics  can  be  regarded  as  fi- 
nally settled  until  all  the  strong  political  parties  have  accept- 
ed the  proposed  solution.  The  tariff  question  is  yet  an  unset- 
tled question  because,  while  one  strong  political  party  favors 
one  tariff  policy,  another  favors  a  different  policy.  The  result 
is  that  the  tariff  changes  according  to  the  political  party  in 
power.  Prohibition  and  woman's  suffrage  are  at  last  settled 
questions  because  all  political  parties  now  favor  them. 

The  question  of  the  participation  of  the  Negroes  in  the 
affairs  of  government  throughout  the  entire  country  is  not  a 
settled  question,  and,  following  the  rule,  will  not  be  until 
there  is  general  agreement  between  the  great  political  parties 
on  the  subject.  Like  the  tariff  it  occupies  an  uncertain  place 
in  the  political  life  of  the  nation. 

It  is  not  a  helpful  thing  for  a  race  to  feel  that  it  is  an 
issue  in  every  campaign  that  is  waged,  and  the  statesmanship 
of  the  Negro  race  should  be  directed  toward  getting  the  race 
question  out  of  politics  as  an  issue,  and  toward  placing  it  in 
the  class  of  settled  questions,  with  all  great  political  parties 
acquiescing  in  the  settlement. 

Fortunately,  the  Negroes  can  study  the  methods  employ- 
ed by  the  leaders  of  causes  that  at  one  time  were  in  great  dis- 
favor with  all  major  political  parties,  but  are  now  heartily 
favored  by  all.  It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  leaders  of  all  the 
causes  that  have  reached  a  final  settlement  to  cultivate  and 
accept  cordially  the  friendship  of  men  of  all  political  parties. 
No  decree  was  issued  that  a  man,  to  be  supported,  must  leave 
the  party  of  his  choice,  regardless  of  his  zeal  for  a  cause  in 
his  own  party.  Prohibitionists  had  a  party,  but  they  were 
the  friends  of  the  friends  of  prohibition  in  all  the  parties  and 
went  to  the  rescue  of  their  friends  whenever  and  wherever 
they  were  in  jeopardy  on  account  of  their  friendship  for  pro- 
hibition. It  was  a  fixed  rule  with  the  leaders  of  the  prohibi- 
tion movement  to  make  it  entirely  safe  for  men  in  all  parties 
to  favor  prohibition. 

The  women  took  the  same  attitude.  A  woman 's  party 
was  formed  but  there  was  no  sentiment  created  to  the  ef- 
fect that  support  was  to  be  withheld  from  all  men,  whatever 
their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  woman's  suffrage  until  they 

43 


pulled  out  of  their  own  parties  and  joined  the  woman's  party. 
The  result  in  the  cases  of  prohibition  and  woman's  suffrage 
is  that  success  has  left  no  strong  political  party  in  their  rear 
to  menace  what  they  have  gained. 

The  prohibitionists,  as  has  been  stated,  made  it  a  rule 
to  make  it  safe  for  any  man  in  any  party  to  help  their  cause. 
The  Negro  is  being  taught  in  some  quarters  that  it 
is  improper  to  step  outside  the  party  lines  to  help  a  man 
even  if  that  man  is  being  destroyed  principally  because  of 
his  friendship  for  the  Negro.  The  prohibitionists  held  that 
every  friend  of  their  cause  elevated  to  a  seat  of  power  in  a 
party  hostile  toward  their  cause  was  that  much  of  a  gain  in 
the  direction  of  a  change  of  policy  in  that  party,  the  end  that 
was  being  sought.  When  a  prohibitionist  voted  for  some 
friend  of  prohibition  who  was  not  a  member  of  that  party,  he 
was  not  read  out  of  his  party  and  called  a  traitor  because  of 
his  act. 

Shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  the  party  which 
the  Negroes  credit  with  being  responsible  for  their  over- 
throw, in  passing  upon  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
amendments,  which  had  been  adopted,  resolved  in  national 
convention,  to  oppose  any  reopening  of  the  questions  that  had 
been  settled  and  "to  recognize  the  equality  of  all  men  before 
the  law,  and  the  duty  of  the  government  in  all  of  its  dealings 
with  the  people  to  mete  out  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all,  of 
whatever  nationality,  race,  color,  or  persuasion,  religious  or 
political. ' ' 

Here  was  the  very  situation  that  must  ultimately  come 
and  abide  if  ever  the  race  question  is  to  disappear  as  a  politi- 
cal issue.  Subsequent  events  show  that  the  most  important 
thing  for  the  Negroes  to  have  done  was  so  to  demean  them- 
selves as  to  keep  disarmed  the  power,  which,  if  utterly  alienat- 
ed, could  displace  them  from  all  their  gains.  But,  fresh  from 
the  long  night  of  slavery,  afraid  of  being  re-enslaved  and  ig- 
norant of  the  great  danger  of  developing  the  permanent  hos- 
tility of  a  powerful  minority,  they  decided  as  a  matter  of 
safety  to  vote  only  for  men  with  their  party's  name  over 
them,  and  against  all  men  not  having  their  party's  name  over 
them,  regardless  as  to  the  respective  characters,  achievements 
and  pronounced  tendencies  of  the  men  involved.  It  was  thus 
that  they  felt  their  way  in  the  dark. 

While  that  course  was  perhaps  a  natural  one  under  the 

44 


circumstances,  the  result  was  also  natural.  The  policy  of  de- 
votion without  the  practice  of  discriminating  choice,  led  to 
the  following  conditions  set  forth  by  the  late  Jas.  G.  Elaine, 
the  most  distinguished  Republican  of  his  day  in  his  book— 
"Twenty  Years  In  Congress:"  "The  consequence  was  that 
some  of  the  States  had  wretched  governments,  officered  by 
bad  men,  who  misled  the  Negro  and  engaged  in  riotous  cor- 
ruption. Their  transgressions  were  made  so  conspicious  that 
the  Eepublican  leaders  of  other  Southern  States,  who  were 
really  trying  to  act  their  part  worthily  and  honorably,  were 
obscured  from  view,  and  did  not  obtain  a  fair  hearing  at  the 
bar  of  public  opinion.  The  government  of  South  Carolina, 
under  its  series  of  Eepublican  administrations,  was  of  such 
character  as  brought  shame  upon  the  Republican  party,  ex- 
posed the  Negro  voters  to  unmerited  obloquy,  and  thus 
wrought  for  the  cause  of  free  government  and  equal  suffrage 
in  the  South  incalcuable  harm.  These  Southern  State  gov- 
ernments proved  a  source  of  angry  contention  inside  the  Re- 
publican party  of  the  North,  and  thus  brought  one  more  cal- 
amity to  the  Negro." 

What  was  it  that  caused  the  Negroes  to  vote  for  the  "bad 
men"  to  whom  Elaine  refers!  The  teaching  that  it  would  be 
treason  to  their  race  to  vote  for  any  man  however  worthy 
whose  name  was  not  on  their  party  ticket.  The  result  was 
bad  government  in  South  Carolina,  the  hiding  of  the  good 
work  of  other  men  in  other  Southern  States,  wrangling  in 
the  Republican  party  of  the  North  and  the  hurling  of  the  Ne- 
gro race  from  the  seat  of  power  with  no  eye  to  pity  and  no 
hand  to  save.  Republicans  in  the  North  deeply  regretted  the 
character  of  the  teaching  that  led  to  the  sad  and  far  reaching 
results  in  South  Carolina. 

Once  again  there  is  a  growing  sentiment  to  invite  the 
Negro  to  participate  in  the  affairs  of  the  government,  and 
once  again  this  dangerous  doctrine  is  being  trotted  out  to  do 
its  deadly  work.  Fortunately  we  now  have  the  two  methods 
before  us — the  method  of  discriminating  choice,  and  the  meth- 
od of  not  supporting  a  true  friend  unless  he  renounces  his 
political  party.  We  find  the  former  policy  lias  won  every- 
where, whereas,  the  latter  has  lost  as  much  ground  as  the 
former  has  gained. 

Since  the  adoption  of  the  federal  constitution,  nineteen 
amendments  have  been  added  to  it.  So  grat  a  document  as 

45 


that  has  not  been  regarded  as  sacred.  It  has  been  changed 
to  meet  changing  conditions.  If  the  American  people  felt 
safe  in  amending  the  constitution  framed  by  their  learned 
forefathers,  surely  the  Negroes  of  today  ought  to  feel  free  to 
improve  upon  the  policies  adopted  by  our  fathers  when  they 
were  yet  fresh  from  slavery. 

The  work  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  incomplete  and  a 
dark  shadow  will  still  hang  over  the  life  of  the  race  until  the 
Negroes  at  last  feel  perfectly  free  in  mind  and  in  heart  to 
cast  their  votes  according  to  their  judgment  of  the  merits  of 
the  men  and  issues  involved,  and  not  according  to  a  tradition- 
al policy  that  takes  no  account  of  special  circumstances.  The 
branding  iron  of  treason  for  discriminating  voters  must  be 
laid  aside. 

It  would  be  well  for  the  Negroes  of  the  United  States  to 
ponder  well  the  following  advice  given  to  his  countrymen  by 
George  Washington  in  his  farewell  address :  "Cultivate  peace 
and  harmony  with  all.  Nothing  is  more  essential  than  that 
permanent,  inveterate  antipathies  against  particular  nations 
and  passionate  attachments  for  others  should  be  excluded, 
and  that  in  place  of  them  just  and  amicable  feelings  toward 
all  should  be  cultivated.  The  nation  which  indulges  toward 
another  an  habitual  hatred  or  an  habitual  fondness  is  in 
some  degree  a  slave.  It  is  a  slave  to  its  animosity  or  its  af- 
fection, either  of  which  is  sufficient  to  lead  it  astray  from  its 
duty  and  its  interest. " 

Fair  minded  Americans  of  all  parties  will  realize  that 
what  is  here  said  is  not  partisan  comment  against  any  party 
nor  for  any  party,  but  it  is  a  call  to  the  Negro  so  to  use  his 
ballot  as  to  win  the  cooperation  of  the  forward  looking  men 
in  all  political  parties,  an  end  so  very  necessary  for  a  settled 
condition  of  things. 


46 


The  Christian  Method  of 
Discussing  Racial  Issues 


Many  tasks  which  other  men  called  heavy  were  looked 
upon  by  the  late  Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  as  being  very 
light.  It  was  his  inclination  to  underestimate  rather  than 
overestimate  the  size  of  an  undertaking.  In  view  of  this 
ever  present  optimism  that  led  him  to  rush  in  where  angels 
might  have  hesitated,  any  comment  from  him  concerning  the 
seriousness  of  a  matter  is  entitled  to  double  weight.  After 
four  years  of  experience  as  president  of  our  country  and 
while  yet  wielding  the  power  and  influence  of  that  great 
office,  Colonel  Roosevelt  pronounced  the  race  question  in  the 
South  the  most  stupendous  sociological  problem  ever  com- 
mitted to  the  hand  of  man. 

For  the  solution  of  a  problem  of  the  size  indicated,  it  is 
not  enough  merely  to  have  a  burning  zeal  for  a  righteous 
outcome  of  things.  Zeal  must  be  accompanied  by  knowledge 
of  the  right  methods  to  be  employed  to  reach  the  desired 
ends.  Peter  was  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  righteousness 
of  his  Master's  cause,  and  was  full  of  zeal.  But  when  he  cut 
off  the  ear  of  the  servant  of  the  high  priest,  his  Master  re- 
buked him.  The  Master  had  a  far  better  way  in  which 
Peter  could  serve  the  cause  The  pentecostal  sermon  which 
Peter  preached  was  a  greater  weapon  of  warfare  than  the 
sword  which  was  ordered  back  into  its  scabbard 

Members  of  the  Negro  race  may  well  give  deep  thought 
to  the  qustion  as  to  HOW  to  go  about  the  task  of  improving 
the  status  of  the  race  in  the  United  States,  holding  in  mind 
the  fact  that  a  good  cause  prosecuted  in  a  wrong  way  will 
not  only  fail  to  win,  but  will  add  other  ills  to  existing  bur- 
dens. Handle  electricity  in  the  right  way,  and  it  is  man's 
most  obedient  and  useful  servant.  Handle  it  in  the  wrong 
way  and  it  will  strike  you  down  with  greater  swiftness  than 
a  savage. 

There  are  those  who,  in  their  very  laudable  desire  to 
bring  about  a  change  in  unfavorable  conditions,  call  for  the 
use  of  violent  language  by  such  of  their  number  as  are  ac- 

47 


corded  a  hearing  by  the  public.  The  true  physician  who  is 
treating  a  case  gives  the  patient  the  medicine  that  is  needed 
and  not  just  any  injurious  drug  for  which  the  patient  may 
call,  and  for  which  he  is  willing  to  pay.  Rather  than  know- 
ingly prescribe  a  harmful  drug  because  of  the  insistence  of 
a  misguided  patient,  the  true  physician  will  retire  from  the 
case. 

There  is  nothing  easier  to  arouse  than  the  racial  feeling, 
nothing  more  terrible  in  its  sweep  when  fully  aroused  and 
nothing  harder  to  allay.  When  in  full  action  it  operates  with- 
out conscience  and  without  mercy.  Terrible  is  the  responsi- 
bility of  any  man  in  any  race  who  needlessly  stirs  the  racial 
feeling  by  the  manner  in  which  subjects  are  approached. 

Far  from  being  benefitted  by  the  engendering  of 
bitterness,  what  the  colored  people  in  all  sections  of 
the  country  really  need  is  a  kindly  feeling  on  the 
part  of  all  white  people  toward  them.  If  a  crime  is  com- 
mitted against  a  Negro,  without  a  proper  feeling,  you  cannot 
get  the  evidence  needed  for  convictions,  and  even  with  the 
proper  evidence  you  cannot  get  the  conviction  in  the  absence 
of  a  proper  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  the  jury.  Moreover,  a 
jury  is  very  likely  to  render  a  verdict  that  harmonizes  with 
the  general  feeling  of  the  public.  It  is  as  plain  as  plain  can 
be  that  the  Negro  race  stands  in  need  of  the  good  will  of 
the  white  race,  and  whenever  good  will  can  be  secured  with- 
out the  sacrifice  of  principle,  it  should  be  sought. 

Dr.  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  has  chosen  as  one  of  his  tasks  the 
laying  bare  of  those  things  which  he  deems  to  be  wrong  in 
the  attitude  of  the  American  people  toward  the  Negro.  One 
of  his  ablest  supporters,  a  Mr.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  Vill- 
ard,  a  grandson  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  great  aboli- 
tionist is  of  the  opinion  that  the  usefulness  of  Mr.  DuBois  in 
his  chosen  work  would  be  greatly  enhanced  by  the  elimination 
of  bitterness.  He  says  of  Dr.  DuBois  in  the  magazine,  "The 
Nation,"  "If  the  personal  bitterness  which  so  often  mars  his 
work  can  disappear,  if  a  truer  Christian  spirit  than  now 
shines  through  his  writings  can  guide  him — the  possibilities 
of  Ms  future  usefulness  seem  great  indeed." 

The  Christian  Science  Monitor,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  impartial  daily  newspapers  published  in  our  country, 
says:  "The  only  final  remedy  is  the  persistent  education  of 
the  whole  community  in  individual  and  public  rights.  The 

48 


Negroes  of  America,  like  every  other  element,  can  help  in 
this  process.  The  proper  presentation  of  their  legitimate 
aims  will  be  effective  in  proportion  as  it  is  calm,  though  sure 
and  vigorous,  in  its  reasoning.  MERELY  INFLAMMATORY 
RHETORIC  BASED  ON  HATRED  AND  RESENTMENT 
WILL  NOT  LEAD  TO  THE  ACHIEVEMENT  OF  IDEALS." 


41) 


Light  From  Below. 

Much  of  the  knowledge  of  medicine  that  blesses  mankind 
has  been  acquired  by  patient  study  of  the  lower  forms  of  life. 
Harvey,  who  is  credited  with  having  made  the  highly  impor- 
tant discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  the  human 
body,  made  a  diligent  study  of  dogs,  pigs,  serpents,  frogs, 
fishes,  slugs,  oysters,  lobsters,  insects  and  of  the  chick  as  it 
developed  in  the  shell.  So  much  impressed  was  Harvey  with 
the  value  of  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  study  of  na- 
ture that  he  gave  his  paternal  estate  to  a  college  to  provide 
a  fund  for  an  annual  oration  in  which  the  orator  was  to  ex- 
hort the  fellows  of  the  college  "to  search  out  and  study  the 
secrets  of  nature  by  way  of  experiment." 

The  ability  of  various  animals  to  fly  is  what  first  awak- 
ened that  ambition  in  man  and  the  development  of  the  fly- 
ing machine  was  greatly  aided  by  the  study  of  the  size,  shape 
and  movements  of  the  flying  organs  of  animals  that  fly. 

The  science  of  government,  no  less  than  the  science  of 
medicine  and  the  art  of  flying,  is  in  debt  to  the  lower  forms 
of  life  for  light  given.  The  wise  man,  Solomon,  urges  the 
sluggard  to  go  to  the  ant  and  study  her  ways  and  be  wise. 
Aristotle,  the  great  Grecian  philosopher,  who  studied  the  mat- 
ter of  government  closely,  spent  much  time  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  life  of  bees,  from  whose  operations  he  gained  many 
of  the  ideas  which  he  has  given  to  the  human  race. 

The  insect  world  has  light  to  give  as  to  the  steps  neces- 
sary to  develop  social  efficiency.  We  go  to  the  bees  for  the 
desired  light.  The  bee  that  invented  the  making  of  honey  and 
is  the  parent  of  the  other  species  of  bees  is  the  Prosopis.  This 
bee  occupies  the  lowest  classification  of  bees.  It  lives  poorly, 
is  clad  poorly,  never  lives  to  see  its  young  mature,  and  dies 
in  isolation.  A  bee  of  the  highest  type  is  the  Apis.  It  is  a  de- 
cided success  in  the  operation  of  governments.  It  establishes 
governments  and  passes  laws  that  are  observed  and  enforced. 
The  Apis  has  been  able  to  develop  queens,  workers,  nymphs, 
princesses,  nurses,  ladies  of  honor,  architects,  masons,  wax 
workers,  sculptors,  chemists,  sweepers,  capsule-makers,  un- 
dertakers and  guards. 

A  bee  that  is  above  the  Prosopis  in  the  scale  of 
development  and  below  the  Apis  is  the  Halictus.  The 
Halictus  practices  co-operation  to  a  limited  degree. 

50 


Numbers  of  them  build  their  nests  near  each  other  and  have 
a  common  entrance,  but  cooperation  goes  no  further.  The 
Halictus  lays  her  male  eggs  first,  but  the  male  bee  has  no  no- 
tion of  cooperation.  It  cannot  enter  into  another's  task.  By 
the  time  the  females  develop  wings,  the  mother  Halictus  dies. 
The  females  know  how  to  cooperate  but  are  hatched  last. 
The  females  hatch  first  with  the  Apis.  Thus,  cooperation 
with  the  mother  is  established  and  progress  is  assured. 

Now  we  have  a  complete  case  before  us.  The  Prosopis 
has  no  cooperation,  and  stays  at  the  bottom  of  the  scale. 

The  Halictus  has  a  small  measure  of  cooperation,  but 
falls  short  of  the  higher  glories. 

The  Apis  reaches  the  highest  stage  of  development  thru 
a  superior  cooperative  spirit. 


51 


Real  Membership  In  a 
Democracy. 

The  chief  force  in  a  democracy  is  the  profound  respect 
that  men  have  for  public  opinion,  and  not  the  efficiency  of 
some  centralized  power. 

Whenever  units  in  a  democracy  feel  that  their  interests 
are  being  jeopardized,  their  recourse  is  to  unite  for  the  pur- 
pose of  summoning  to  their  aid  the  power  of  public  opinion. 

To  do  this,  the  affected  units  must  have  the  following 
qualifications : 

1.  A  ready  tendency  to  unite  to  present  their  cause  to 
the  people  as  a  whole.  This  calls  for  a  capacity  for  thorough 
organization,  alertness,  and  a  spirit  of  harmony.  If  the  units 
are  apathetic  or  are  unduly  quarrelsome  it  will  be  difficult 
for  them  to  present  their  case  to  the  public  with  proper  speed. 

2.  There  must  be  great  intelligence  and  the  ability  to 
present  their  case  in  a  thoroughly  convincing  manner. 

3.  They  must  possess  an  abundance  of  tact.    When  units 
are  tactless,  public  opinion,  even  when  convinced,  is  slow  to 
come  to  the  aid  of  those  who  in  any  way  have  offended,  or 
have  failed  to  reach  the  finer  feelings  that  are  in  men.    The 
units  must  possess  grace  as  well  as  intelligence. 

It  can  be  seen  that  real  membership  in  a  democracy  can 
neither  be  conferred  nor  witheld  from  the  outside.  Hon.  Chas. 
E.  Hughes  says:  "Democracy  is  not  of  the  flesh,  but  of  the 
spirit;  its  forms  in  themselves  are  vain." 

The  spirit  of  cooperation  is  the  spirit  of  democracy.  Men 
are  qualified  for  life  in  a  democracy  just  in  proportion  as 
they  have  the  necessary  qualfications  for  a  life  of  coopera- 
tion. If  they  are  not  sufficiently  cooperative,  they  will  not 
live  up  to  their  opportunities  in  a  democracy  and  things  will 
go  unconnected  for  an  undue  length  of  time  because,  as  the 
affected  units,  they  fail  to  do  the  things  necessary  to  marshal 
public  opinion  on  their  side. 

A  healthy  human  body  is  a  splendid  illustration  of  the 
operation  of  a  democracy.  Let  us  suppose  the  cells  of  a  nerve 
in  a  toe  to  be  menaced.  Knowledge  of  the  danger  in  the  form 
of  pain  is  conveyed  from  cell  to  cell  until  it  reaches  the  center 
of  intelligence  in  the  brain,  which  proceeds  to  transfer  from 
cell  to  cell  the  impulse  necessary  for  appropriate  action.  If 

52 


the  cells  in  the  affected  part  do  not  cooperate  to  transmit  the 
danger  signal,  the  center  of  intelligence  will  not  be  moved  to 
act. 

From  time  to  time  some  members  of  the  Negro  race  are 
victims  of  things  that  are  not  right.  As  members  of  a  demo- 
cracy, it  is  the  duty  of  the  affected  units  to  unite  and  pass  to 
the  general  public  exact  information  as  to  their  grievances. 
This  must  be  done  in  the  tone  and  manner  that  will  summon 
from  the  general  public  the  kind  and  degree  of  help  that  is 
needed. 

Merely  making  appeals  to  Congress  is  not  meeting  fully 
the  requirements  of  a  democracy.  Congress  may  be  likened 
unto  the  muscles  of  the  human  body  which  move  only  in  re- 
sponse to  orders  from  the  center  of  intelligence.  Congress  in 
large  measure,  acts  in  harmony  with  what  it  is  brought  to 
feel  is  the  demand  of  the  public.  The  whole  body  of  people 
should  be  reached  with  the  right  kind  of  arguments,  argu- 
ments that  will  bring  the  desired  results.  This  may  ap- 
pear to  be  a  cumberson  method,  yet  it  is  the  method  that  has 
to  be  resorted  to  by  all  live  elements  in  a  democracy. 

In  view  of  these  truths,  elements  in  a  democracy  that  lack 
a  readiness  to  unite,  that  are  torn  with  needless  strife,  that 
do  not  present  their  cause  with  a  high  degree  of  both  intelli- 
gence and  tact  are  very  likely  to  find  their  grievances  un- 
attended to,  while  public  attention  is  being  given  to  elements 
that  do  possess  the  traits  mentioned. 

Those  not  permeated  with  the  true  cooperative  spirit  may 
be  in  a  democracy  and  yet  not  of  it.  The  development  of  the 
spirit  of,  and  virtues  necessary  to  a  life  of  sustained  coopera- 
tion is  an  absolute  necessity. 


53 


Where  The  Spirit  of  Cooperation 

Is  Weak. 

There  are  races  of  men  with  stunted  bodies  and  likewise 
there  are  races  in  which  the  spirit  of  cooperation  is  very  weak. 
Wherever  the  spirit  of  cooperation  is  of  a  weak  character 
the  following  conditions  will  be  found  to  exist : 

1.  There  will  be  no  conscious  or  deliberate  selection  of 
a  leader. 

2.  Whatever  general  leadership  exists  will  be  such  as  is 
acquired  by  some  outstanding  personality.    In  the  absence  of 
such  a  personality,  the  post  of  leadership  is  vacant.  In  a  so- 
ciety truly  cooperative  there  is  an  official  leadership  during 
the  lapses   between   the    coming    of  exceptional    characters. 
Leaders  were  found  between  Washington  and  Lincoln  and  be- 
tween Lincoln  and  Roosevelt  because  the  cooperation  of  the 
people  through  organization  supplied  the  leadership. 

3.  Such  leadership  as  exists  has  a  difficult  task  to  func- 
tion.    Natural  jealousies  are  more  pronounced  than  is  the 
spirit  of  cooperation,  the  force  that  overcomes  the  influence 
of  jealousies  in  a  truly  cooperative  group. 

4.  A  strong  cooperative  spirit  carries  with  it  a  sense  of 
responsibility  for  the  general  welfare  and  a  clear  conception 
of  all  that  affects  it.    Where  the  spirit  of  cooperation  is  a 
weak  one,  questions  of  general  interest  will  receive  scant  at- 
tention and  some  things  that  tend  in  the  direction  of  harm  to 
the  entire  group  are  allowed  to  go  on  with  but  little  notice. 
Those  who  attack  the  joint  tasks  of  mankind  secure  but  mea- 
ger cooperation. 

5.  It  takes  the  combined  wisdom  of  men  to  operate  a 
government.     Those  in  power  must  have  the  benefit  of  the 
thoughts  and  observations  of  the  goverened,  else  unsuspected 
evils  will  develop.  Where  men  have  not  the  cooperative  bent 
they  do  not  lend  their  ideas  to  the  governing  force  to  the  de- 
gree necessary  for  general  satisfaction.  On  the  other  hand 
when  evils  arise  and  it  becomes  expedient  to  change  the  gov- 
erning force,  cooperation   is    required  to    remove    those  en- 
trenched in  power.    Wherever  the  cooperative  spirit  is  weak 
there  is  little  tendency  to  form  the  unions  necessary  to  bring 
about  needed  changes. 

54 


6.  Where  cooperation  is  weak,  efforts  at  reform  are  as 
likely  to  disrupt  as  to  bring  good  results,  hence  needless  div- 
ions,  or  acquiescence  in  wrong. 

7.  Where  cooperation  is  weak  there  is  a  woeful  waste 
of  time  and  energy  in  stimulating  interest.    This  is  due  to  the 
absence  of  spontaneity — the  very  essence  of  cooperative  life. 


55 


The  Ten  Requirements  For 
Racial  Success 

1.  Every  civic  need  should  be  definitely  in  charge  of 
some  organization. 

2.  Meetings  of  organizations  and  committees  should  be 
well  attended. 

3.  There  should  be  an  exchange  of  ideas  in  a  calm,  kind- 
ly spirit. 

4.  Ears,  eyes  and  mind  should  be  kept  open  in  search 
of  those  in  need  of  and  worthy  of  cooperation,  and  the  worthy 
efforts  of  others  should  be  seconded    voluntarily  and  with 
great  readiness. 

5.  Honesty  should  be  practiced. 

6.  Truthfulness  should  be  the  rule  in  all  things. 

7.  The  appetites  should  be  under  control,  a  condition 
necessary  for  the  development  of  the  great,  indispensible  vir- 
tue— thrift. 

8.  There  should  be  a  feeling  of  personal  responsibil- 
ity for  the  general  welfare. 

9.  All  things  should  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  love. 

10.     There  should  be  a  broad  spirit  of  tolerance,  each  one 
according  to  his  neighbor  the  right  to  think  his  own  thought. 


56 


Philosophy  of  Nation  Building 

Mineral  matter,  insects,  lower  animals  and  human  be- 
ings may  be  divided  into  two  categories — the  individualistic 
and  cooperative. 

Atoms  composing  a  gaseous  substance  are  individualis- 
tic in  tendency,  each  seeking  to  get  away  from  its  neighbor 
and  being  held  in  proximity  to  its  neighbor  only  in  proportion 
to  the  nearness  of  outside  pressure. 

The  atoms  constituting  steel  are  cooperative  in  tendency, 
clinging  to  each  other  tenaciously,  and  separating  only  as  the 
result  of  outside  pressure  applied  with  drastic  force. 

Among  the  individualistic  insects  are  to  be  found  the 
flies,  butterflies,  grasshoppers,  the  solitary  bee,  and  the 
"Praying  Mantis."  The  Mantis  comes  into  conscious  exis- 
tence, not  only  inclined  not  to  cooperate  with  its  immediate 
kin,  but  disposed  from  the  beginning  toward  suspicion,  and 
warring  against  its  brothers  and  sisters.  The  female  Mantis 
finally  rounds  out  her  career  of  anti-cooperation  by  eating 
her  husband. 

Some  of  the  cooperative  insects  are  ants,  hornets,  wasps, 
and  social  bees.  The  social  bee  manifests  in  a  high  degree 
the  cooperative  bent. 

The  mole  and  the  rabbit  are  individualistic  animals. 

The  wolf  and  the  beaver  are  animals  that  have  the  co- 
operative bent,  it  being  more  pronounced  in  the  beaver  than 
in  the  wolf,  the  latter  confining  its  cooperation  to  searching 
and  fighting  for  food. 

All  races  of  men  have  some  measure  of  the  cooperative 
bent  and  are  to  be  divided  into  individualistic  or  cooperative 
groups  in  proportion  as  individualism  or  cooperation  predom- 
inates. Therefore,  in  all  individualistic  human  groups  there 
will  be  a  measure  of  cooperation,  and  in  all  cooperative 
groups,  a  measure  of  individualism  . 

Out  of  the  groups  in  which  the  cooperative  spirit  is  pre- 
dominant, we  get  the  great  governments  of  the  world.  The 
groups  in  which  the  cooperative  spirit  is  weak  constitute  what 
are  termed  the  backward  races. 


57 


INDIVIDUALISM 

Rampant  individualism  retards  the  development  of  races. 
The  following  are  some  of  its  effects : 

Individualism  causes  sacred  trusts  to  be  regarded  as  gold- 
en opportunities  for  self  aggrandisement  that  must  not  be 
ignored.  The  spirit  of  elevating  personal  interest  over  the  in- 
terests of  the  group  prevails. 

Under  individualism,  through  the  elevation  of  personal 
interests  above  the  general  welfare,  there  comes  a  needless 
duplication  of  organization,  and  a  perversion  of  institutions 
designed  to  serve  the  public  interest  to  agencies  serving  per- 
sonal ends,  primarily. 

In  all  groups  where  individualism  predominates  there  is 
a  lack  of  adequate  support  of  leaders  from  attacks  born  of 
jealousy.  Leadership  involves  the  possession  of  exceptional 
talents,  and  the  possession  of  exceptional  talents  begets  jeal- 
ousies. Where  men  are  exclusively  engrossed  with  personal 
interests  they  fail  to  help  those  afflicted  by  the  handicaps  born 
of  a  jealous  spirit. 

Individualism  blights  the  spirit  of  reform  by  denying  it 
proper  cooperation. 

Where  individualism  thrives,  distrust,  because  of  knowl- 
edge or  fear  of  betrayal  of  trusts,  is  present  with  its  par- 
alyzing influence. 

Under  the  reign  of  individualism,  social  agencies  that 
should  care  for  those  things  that  endanger  society  are  lack- 
ing, or,  are  but  feebly  supported,  thus  allowing  evils  to  mul- 
tiply and  become  menacing. 

COLLECTIVE  EFFICIENCY 

The  crowning  work  of  the  cooperative  spirit  in  a  race  is 
collective  efficiency.  A  group  possesses  collective  efficiency 
when  it  has  the  capacity  for,  and  the  habit  of  concentrating 
all  of  its  potential  and  necessary  forces  behind  the  joint  tasks 
of  mankind. 

Among  the  chief  joint  tasks  of  men  are: 

(a)The  preservation  of  health,  that  the  species  may  en- 
dure. 

(b)  The  handing  over  to  the  many  of  the  advancement 
attained  by  individuals. 

(c)  The  protection  of  the  social  body  from  the  opera- 
tion of  anti-social  forces. 

(d)  The  matter  of  unification  and  cohesion. 

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(e)  The  getting  to  the  front  in  a  dominating  position 
that  which  is  highest  and  best  in  the  group  life. 

(f)  Timely  and  adequate  support,  with  both  thought 
and  action,  of  administrative  forces. 

(g)  The  removal  of  inefficiency  or  other  retarding  in- 
fluences from  the  seat  of  power  at  the  proper  time  and  in  a 
wise  manner. 

(h)  The  attainment  of  results  of  such  a  stupendous 
and  worthy  character  as  to  compel  the  respect  and  eliminate 
the  possibility  of  having  the  contempt  of  other  groups  of  men. 

(i)  The  conquest  of  the  good  will  of  other  groups  of 
men. 

(j)  Social  sanitation — (Note)  Just  as  no  human  body 
is  complete  without  arrangements  for  disposing  of  the  waste 
matter  generated,  likewise  a  social  group  must  have  facili- 
ties to  make  proper  disposition  of  its  waste  matter,  delin- 
quencies and  victims  of  unfortunate  circumstances,  whose  ne- 
glect would  cause  injury  to  the  social  body. 

The  body  of  an  animal  is  not  complete  and  is  not  in  a 
safe  or  healthy  condition  unless  it  is  equipped  with  corrective 
and  curative  agencies.  There  must  be  pores  for  the  elimina- 
tion of  waste  matter  and  there  must  be  curative  agencies  to 
set  things  right  when  disorders  appear.  If  the  body  of  an 
animal  is  lacking  in  curative  power  it  is  avoided  as  in  the 
case  of  leprosy.  Any  social  body  that  lacks  curative  forces 
may  be  said  to  have  the  social  leprosy. 

These  joint  tasks  are  but  illy  performed  wherever  there 
is  an  absence  of  spontaneity  in  extending  to  men  who  have 
the  spirit  of  reform,  the  degree  of  timely  aid  needed  to  pro- 
duce the  desired  result.  Where  spontaneity  is  lacking  the 
waste  of  time  <and  energy  in  summoning  the  cooperative  spirit 
to  the  foreground  is  enormous. 

THE  MAKING  OF  CO-OPERATOKS 

The  chief  task  of  civilization  is  to  change  each  succeed- 
ing generation  from  the  individualistic  to  the  cooperative 
bent,  as  a  man  begins  life  equipped  by  nature  to  practice  in- 
dividualism. 

There  is  no  question  of  greater  importance  than  that  as 
to  how  the  young  are  to  acquire  this  cooperative  bent.  It  has 
been  held  by  some  that  traits  are  inherited.  There  are  others 
who  hold  that  there  is  no  inheritance  of  traits  along  with  the 
body.  It  is  conceded  that  certain  physical  organs  are  inheri- 

59 


ted  which  yield  themselves  more  readily  to  the  manifesta- 
tions of  certain  traits,  but  that  the  traits  themselves  come  in 
a  different  manner. 

There  is  an  early  period,  so  the  theory  goes,  when  the 
spiritual  being,  the  mind  is  without  special  bias  as  to  traits, 
and  what  its  character  is  to  become  depends  upon  impress- 
ions made  during  an  early  period.  For  example,  it  is  held 
that  a  wild  duck  does  not  inherit  fear  of  men,  that  when  it 
comes  into  the  world  its  nature,  so  far  as  that  matter  is  con- 
cerned, is  thoroughly  neutral.  The  mother  early  inculates 
fear,  and  does  it  under  such  circumstances  that  it  does  not 
leave  the  young  duck  after  it  has  been  thus  impressed.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  young  duck  can  be  reached  in  the  ab- 
sence of  its  mother  and  before  she  has  made  that  impression 
upon  it,  it  can  be  brought  up  utterly  devoid  of  fear  of  men. 

It  is  held  that  a  child  does  not  inherit  the  traits  of  the 
race  to  which  it  belongs,  but  that  the  social  atmosphere  into 
which  it  is  thrown  shapes  its  character.  The  most  important 
thing  in  connection  with  a  race,  therefore,  is  thought  to  be 
the  social  atmosphere,  the  body  of  sentiments  and  thoughts 
in  which  it  is  enveloped.  The  late  Benjamin  Kidd  says:  <;It 
is  the  matter  of  its  social  heredity  which  creates  the  ruling 
people.  It  is  what  it  lacks  in  its  social  heredity  that  relegates 
a  people  to  the  position  of  an  inferior  race.- ' 

Benjamin  Kidd.  Science  of  Power,  P.  304. 

The  child  of  a  community  unconciously  imbibes  the  en- 
veloping sentiment.  Is  the  tone  of  life  in  the  community  pre- 
dominantly selfish  or  altruistic,  jealous  or  generous,  construc- 
tive or  destructive,  individualistic  or  cooperative,  concerned 
about  the  future  or  occupied  wholly  with  the  thoughts  of  the 
moment?  Upon  the  thinking  of  the  community  depends  the 
kind  of  individual  being  made  out  of  the  child.  If  the  child 
comes  out  of  this  social  mould  with  a  cooperative  spirit,  he 
has  in  him  the  possibilities  of  a  good  citizen,  a  good  team 
mate.  If  he  comes  out  as  an  individualist  it  will  be  difficult 
to  build  a  government  out  of  material  of  his  kind. 

Education  for  a  life  of  cooperation,  it  can  be  seen,  does 
not  consist  in  merely  pointing  out  the  value  of  cooperation. 
An  individualist  can  see  how  that  the  spirit  of  cooperation, 
fostered  in  others,  can  be  made  to  feed  his  individualism. 

What  seems  to  be  thriving  cooperative  enterprises  may 
only  be  growths  stimulated  under  the  guise  of  cooperation 
to  foster  individual  interests. 

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CIVIC  TRAINING 

The  school  can  be  made  a  center  in  which  individualists 
are  transformed  into  cooperators. 

To  make  an  enduring  success   of  cooperation,  certain 
mental  concepts  must  be  inculcated,    certain   temper-mental 
traits  must  be  fostered  and  certain  moral  principles  must  be 
accepted  and  followed : 

If  the  cooperative  spirit  is  to  thrive  to  the  point  of  col- 
lective efficiency,  the  highest  of  human  achievements,  devel- 
opment must  be  secured  along  the  following  lines : 

(The  part  that  is  played  by  various  items  here  mention- 
ed in  causing  a  race  to  be  capable  of  exhibiting  that  greatest 
of  all  human  virtues — social  efficiency — is  set  forth  more 
fully  in  the  author's  book — "Life's  Demands. ") 

Requirements  of  groups  that  would  exhibit  collective  ef- 
ficiency. 

MORAL 

1.  A  keen  sense  of  personal  responsibility  for  the  gen- 
eral welfare. 

2.  Substitution  of  self-renunciation  for  self  preserva- 
tion when  the  general  welfare  is  involved. 

3.  Control  of  appetites. 

4.  Honesty  that  begets  fidelity  to  trust  and  justifies  a 
policy  of  faith  in  man. 

5.  Reliability. 

MENTAL 

1.  Ready  tendency  to  second  the  worthy  efforts  of  oth- 
ers. 

2.  Appreciation  of  the  necessity  of  rectifying  injurious 
tendencies  in  the  life  of  the  group. 

3.  Possession  of  the  ideal  of  unity. 

4.  Promptness. 

5.  The  tendency  to  plan  for  the  future. 

6.  The  habit  of  inquiry.  (Note. — It  is  this  bent  that  leads 
a  group  to  study  the  forces  of  nature,  the  offerings  of  their 
great  minds  and  the   essentials    of    the    progress    of    other 
groups.    In  the  absence  of  the  habit  of  inquiry  the  forces  of 
nature  will  be  neglected,  exceptional  characters  will  not  be 
correctly  interpreted  and  there  will  be  no  keeping  of  the  pace 
with  progressive  groups.) 

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TEMPERAMENTAL. 

1.  Supression  of  the  spirit  of  jealousy. 

2.  Advoidance  of  excessive  emotionalism. 

(In  view  of  the  retarding  influence  of  excessive  emotion- 
alism, it  is  perhaps  well  to  describe  its  workings.  Races  cha- 
racterized by  excessive  emotionalism  will  seem  to  be  thor- 
oughly aroused  over  a  matter,  will  resolve  to  follow  a  given 
course  and  will  put  men  in  the  lead  to  attain  the  ends  sought. 
Then  there  comes  a  cooling  down.  Those  placed  in  the  lead 
find  themselves  abandoned.  This  has  the  tendency  to  cause 
the  abler  minds  of  groups  afflicted  with  excessive  emotional- 
ism to  be  reluctant  to  accept  the  leadership  in  movements  de- 
pending upon  the  sustained  zeal  of  followers. 

Where  excessive  emotionalism  prevails,  there  is  a  great 
heat  manifested  over  proposed  changes  in  policy.  Policies 
that  have  outlived  their  usefulness  continue  because  of  the 
heat  that  will  be  encountered  if  steps  are  taken  to  improve 
upon  them.  The  races  that  go  forward  are  those  that  are 
torn  away  from  outworn  customs  and  ideas  demonstrated  to 
be  erroneous.  Excessive  emotionalism  destroys  the  spirit  of 
tolerance  that  makes  possible  the  working  of  reforms.) 

3.  Possession  of  courtesy. 

4.  Possession  of  tact. 

5.  Possession  of  courage. 

6.  Persistence. 

The  absence  or  weakness  of  any  of  the  foregoing  qualities, 
concepts  or  traits  in  the  life  of  a  people  endangers  the  whole 
social  fabric  and  can  prevent  the  development  of  social  effi- 
ciency. It  is  the  combination  of  virtues  that  wins  even  as 
teams  win  out  over  players  who  play  as  individuals. 


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HZ) 


